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Remarks as Prepared: Good morning.  Today, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is meeting to hold a hearing entitled “Turmoil in the U.S. Credit Markets: Examining Proposals to Mitigate Foreclosures and Restore Liquidity to the Mortgage Markets.”  Last week, we had an excellent hearing to look at one result of the turmoil we are experiencing in the capital markets – the decision of the federal government to commit $29 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Bear Stearns.  Today, we are focusing more on the other end of the spectrum – the impact of the crisis on homeowners.

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Remarks as Prepared: Today, this Committee will carefully consider recent actions taken by our federal financial regulators in response to the ongoing turmoil in our markets and our economy.  Much of our focus today will center on a period of 96 hours—mostly over the weekend of March 15^th and 16^th.  During this momentous 4-day period, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Treasury Department took dramatic and unprecedented action to stabilize our markets, to infuse them with liquidity and to prevent additional financial firms from being swept under the riptide of panic that threatened to have taken hold of our markets.

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Remarks as Prepared: The Committee will please come to order. We gather here this morning to examine an issue of paramount importance: the condition of our nation’s infrastructure, and proposals for needed improvements to it.

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I’m proud to be here with the National Peace Corps Association, to honor a cause that has done so much to shape my life—and the lives of so many people in this room.

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Remarks as prepared: I’d like to thank you all for coming to this important hearing on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. For 27 winters, since 1981, LIHEAP has helped millions of people pay their heating bills and keep their families warm.

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Remarks as prepared: I am pleased to call the Committee to order. Today the Committee will hear testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the outlook for the nation’s economy, the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy and the status of important consumer protection regulations that are under the Fed’s jurisdiction. This is Chairman Bernanke’s second appearance before the Committee this year. Mr. Chairman, it is good to have you.

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I call the Committee to order. Today the Committee meets to discuss the state of our nation’s economy and capital markets. I am pleased to welcome before the Committee three of country’s leading economic figures, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. I want to note that the last time the heads of all three of these agencies appeared jointly before the Committee to discuss the state of our nation’s economy was in the immediate aftermath of the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001. While the challenges the nation’s economy faces today are very different from those that were faced then, today’s economic challenges are, unfortunately, no less serious.

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After marking the 15^th anniversary of the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on February 5^th, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children and Families, discussed how to build upon the success of FMLA in the coming years at a press conference today.  Senator Dodd is the author of FMLA, which has allowed more than 60 million workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they are ill or if they need to care for a sick family member or new child.  Among the topics to be discussed at the event will be “The Family Leave Insurance Act,” a bill to provide up to 8 weeks of paid leave under FMLA that was introduced by Senator Dodd and Senator Stevens (R-AK) last year, and the new FMLA regulations recently proposed by the Department of Labor. 

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Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today held a press conference to discuss the recent market volatility and downturn in the American economy, as well as the priorities that the Banking Committee will focus on over the year ahead to help working families and businesses achieve economic security and prosperity.  Below are his remarks as prepared:

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Well thanks for visiting my website. I want to take a minute to tell you what took place yesterday and this morning on the floor of the United States Senate regarding Iraq.