Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to the news that Mary Schapiro plans to step down from her position as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mary Schapiro took over the chairmanship of an agency that was failing in its job and she has made major strides towards establishing it as an effective regulator.  She has had the difficult job of implementing the financial reform law, with its significant grant of new powers to the agency she chairs, in the face of obstruction from Republican appropriators, conservative judges seeking to impose their ideology, and elements in the business community seeking to take advantage of these forces.

I am grateful to her for taking on this difficult job and for doing it as well as she has.