First Regular Session
              Sixty-ninth General Assembly
                    STATE OF COLORADO
                                                 INTRODUCED
                                                           
                                                           
 LLS NO. M13-1002.01 Tara Rhodes x4338            SJM13-002
                   SENATE SPONSORSHIP
 Hill, Baumgardner, Brophy, Lambert, Lundberg, Marble, Harvey, King
 
                    HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
 (None),
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Senate Committees
 House Committees
 
 
 State, Veterans, & Military Affairs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                   SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 13-002 
       Memorializing the United States Congress to enact
            legislation regarding the regulation of commercial
            and investment banks.
       
       
            WHEREAS, An effective monetary and banking system is
       essential to the proper function of the economy; and
       
            WHEREAS, An effective monetary and banking system must
       function in the public interest without bias; and
       
            WHEREAS, The federal Banking Act of 1933, commonly referred
       to as the Glass-Steagall Act, protected the public interest in matters
       dealing with the regulation of commercial and investment banks, in
       addition to insurance companies and securities firms; and
       
            WHEREAS, Sections of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed in
       1999, permitting members of the financial industry to exploit the financial
       system for their own gain in disregard of the public interest; and
       
            WHEREAS, Many financial industry entities were saved by the
       United States Treasury at a cost of billions of dollars to American
       taxpayers; and
       
            WHEREAS, Within the hundreds of pages of the Dodd-Frank
       Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, there are no
       prohibitions that prevent "too big to fail" financial services organizations
       from investing in or undertaking substantial risks involving trillions of
       dollars of derivative contracts; and
       
            WHEREAS, The American taxpayers continue to be at risk for the
       next round of bank failures as enormous risks are undertaken by financial
       services organizations; and
       
            WHEREAS, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has introduced H.R.
       129, known as the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2013, to reinstate the
       provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, which has gained major bipartisan
       support; and
       
            WHEREAS, The Glass-Steagall Act has widespread national
       support from organizations such as the American Federation of Labor and
       Congress of Industrial Organizations, the American Federation of
       Teachers, the International Association of Machinists, many prominent
       economic and business leaders, and many of the major and respected
       national newspapers as well as others; now, therefore,
       
            Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-ninth General Assembly
       of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:
       
            That, we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly,
       memorialize Congress to enact legislation that would reinstate the
       separation of commercial and investment banking functions that was in
       effect under the Glass-Steagall Act and the Banking Act of 1933, and
       legislation that would prohibit commercial banks and bank holding
       companies from investing in stocks, underwriting securities, or investing
       in or acting as guarantors to derivative transactions, in order to prevent
       American taxpayers from being again called upon to bail out financial
       institutions.
       
            Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Memorial be sent
       to the Honorable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States, and
       the members of Colorado's congressional delegation.