House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank released the following statement today:

     For the past three years, Chris Dodd has provided skillful, creative, and forceful leadership on some of the most important problems facing our country and the world.  While I greatly admire his leadership on health care reform, obviously the area where we have worked together most closely is in our capacity as chairs of the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over the financial industry and the economic crisis that industry caused.  For both of us, taking over as committee chairs in 2007, after many years in the minority, gave us a high degree of responsibility to tackle the problems that have been caused by the prior period.  I was consistently impressed with Senator Dodd’s ability to act effectively in the difficult parliamentary environment of the Senate as we responded to the Bush Administration’s request to deal with the financial crisis, and working at the same time to prevent another occurrence.  Those who admire the work done by Kenneth Feinberg to put the first constraints in American history on excessive compensation for financial executives should remember that it was Senator Dodd’s amendment that gave him that power.
 
     I will miss his leadership in future Congresses, but I do look forward to working closely with him for the rest of this year on finishing the job of significant financial regulatory reform, to which he is committed, and to which he has already worked to advance. 

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