Heck’s with Cantwell: Financial reform falls short

After dinging Democratic congressional candidate Denny Heck last week for the lack of an issues page on his campaign website, we want to note that he did weigh in on the Wall Street reform bill recently passed by Congress.

Heck said he agrees with U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, who voted against the Senate version of the bill, saying it did not close potentially dangerous loopholes in the regulation of derivatives, those financial instruments that helped trigger the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“Throughout this debate I have fought hard against efforts to weaken this legislation as well as to pass language to strengthen it further,” Cantwell said in a statement May 20. “But the fact of the matter is, without key reforms in derivatives trading, this bill does not safeguard America’s economy from a repeat of this crisis.”

Cantwell called for revival of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated risky investment activities from traditional banking.

Heck agreed, and urged Congress to strengthen the bill during House-Senate conference negotiations.

“Wall Street and reckless CEOs brought this country to its knees and materially contributed to over seven million jobs lost in this country,” he wrote. “Southwest Washington continues to suffer from the highest unemployment in the state, and no job is safe if we do not comprehensively reform Wall Street and the casino capitalism that got us into this mess.”

Kathie Durbin