W.H. praises passage of financial overhaul

President Barack Obama lauded the House of Representatives' passage of the financial overhaul bill that on Friday.

The House passed the bill, which is intended to aid consumers and crack down on Wall Street abuses, by a vote of 220-203. No Republicans voted for the bill. The Senate is still working on counterpart legislation.

"I urge both houses of Congress to pass this necessary reform as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people," said Obama in a statement. "This legislation brings us another important step closer to necessary, comprehensive financial reform that will create clear rules of the road, consistent and systematic enforcement of those rules, and a stronger, more stable financial system with better protections for consumers and investors."

 The Obama administration has made reforming the country's financial system one of its main goals.

The bill creates a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), imposes new curbs on the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market and sets up a new system for dissolving failing financial firms.

"The crisis from which we are still recovering was born not only of failure on Wall Street, but also in Washington," Obama said. "We have a responsibility to learn from it, and to put in place reforms that will promote sound investment, encourage real competition and innovation, and prevent such a crisis from ever happening again."

 

---