According to staffers for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a banking representative invited to take a look at draft bank legislation by the Louisiana senator and Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, leaked the details. The bill is intended to reduce the risk to taxpayers from mega banks by requiring them to maintain higher levels of capital. Vitter and Brown call...
According to staffers for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a banking representative invited to take a look at draft bank legislation by the Louisiana senator and Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, leaked the details. The bill is intended to reduce the risk to taxpayers from mega banks by requiring them to maintain higher levels of capital. Vitter and Brown call them "too-big-to-fail banks" because they are so large that their failure could tank the national economy, pressuring government to provide bailouts.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is working on a bill to force big banks to maintain higher levels of capital.
Sure enough, after the information was leaked, the proposal got a negative assessment from Rob Nichols, the Financial Services Forum's chief executive officer. "Raising required capital to comically high levels will severely restrict banks' ability to lend to businesses and job creators," he said.
But the details about the bill prompted Bloomberg editors to write an editorial in which they rejected Nichols' gloom and doom projections. "It would be more accurate to say the current level of equity at the largest U.S. banks is comically low," last week's Bloomberg editorial said. "The typical U.S. enterprise has equity of about 70 percent of assets."
The New York Times also did a favorable blog on on the legislation, which would require large banks to keep more cash on hand to avoid a repeat of the 2008-09 bank collapse that tanked the economy and led to huge federal bailouts. There's no word when Vitter and Brown will release their final legislation. Prospects for passage are uncertain.
A reason to be grateful
Former Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Boysie Bollinger has a good reason for breaking with his party and backing Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu for re-election in 2014.
Landrieu helped enact legislation to speed work at Bollinger Shipyards on fast response cutters. Her efforts came at the same time that the Coast Guard was seeking to recoup millions of dollars from the Lockport shipyard for producing "unseaworthy and unusable" deep-water cutters.
Landrieu has said Bollinger employs a highly skilled workforce that has performed well for the Coast Guard. Doing the work more quickly on the fast response cutters, she said, would produce efficiencies that will save taxpayers $30 million. She said the project provides hundreds of well-paying jobs.
In announcing this week that he and fellow Republican fundraiser Joe Canizaro are helping Landrieu raise money for her 2014 campaign bid, Bollinger said, "People know that at the end of the day, Mary always fights for our state." Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, has announced that he will challenge Landrieu in the 2014 Louisiana Senate race.
White House honors 2 Louisiana residents for climate change work
On Thursday, the White House honored two Louisiana residents for helping prepare their communities for climate change. Given Champions of Change awards were 12 people, including Patrick Barnes of New Orleans and Orlando, Fla., and Rebecca Templeton of Thibodaux. Since Hurricane Katrina, Barnes, president and CEO of BFA Environmental, has taught entry-level job skills and certifications to more than 300 at-risk young adults who are now qualified to work as environmental technicians, helping make their communities less vulnerable to climate change.
Templeton, executive director of Bayou Grace Community Services, mobilizes residents to help combat Louisiana's coastal land loss by promoting restoration efforts. Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said it's important to recognize those "who are doing smart, innovative work to protect the health, safety and prosperity of their communities in the face of climate change."
Vitter gets a well-done from ASPCA
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) put out a "well done" mention for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and three other senators for reintroducing legislation to strengthen laws against animal fighting. Their bill would make it a federal offense to attend an organized animal fight, and would impose additional penalties for bringing a minor to an animal fight.
In 2008, Louisiana became one of the last states to ban cockfighting after strong pressure from the ASPCA and politicians, including Vitter. "Animal fights are cruel and gruesome spectacles conducted solely for profit and entertainment," said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA government relations. "A host of other dangerous and illegal activities are frequently associated with animal fighting, including drugs, weapons, and gambling, and this measure would help law enforcement pursue the spectators who drive the market for animal fighting."
White House backs Landrieu ban on horse slaughter
Speaking of allegations of animal cruelty, the White House last week, via President Barack Obama's 2014 budget, endorsed efforts by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to ban using tax dollars for federal inspections of horse slaughtering plants.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has received at least six applications to open horse slaughtering processing plants, and must approve at least one of them, unless Congress bans the inspections.
Landrieu had proposed legislation to do exactly that. Landrieu says the process is inherently cruel to horses, and that horse meat can be dangerous because many of the animals are administered drugs banned for human use.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, said: "It's a fool's errand to inspect tainted horse meat, and this administration is wise to reject that path and to embrace the idea, even indirectly, that horses belong in the stable and not on the table."
Without inspections from the Department of Agriculture, the domestic horse meat industry would be unable to open processing plants.