July 8, 2011 (EIRNS)—On July 7, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), along with five co-sponsors, introduced a second Glass Steagall bill into the House. H.R. 2451, “To Restore Certain Provisions of the Banking Act of 1933, Commonly Referred to as the Glass Steagall Act, and for Other Purposes,” is similar to H.R. 1489 (introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), but is shorter and does not provide the same level of detail on enforcement. The co-sponsors include

• John Conyers (D-Mich.),
• Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), and
• Michael Capuano (D-Mass.),

who are also co-sponsors of the Kaptur bill. Others include

• Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and
• Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

Also on July 7, three new cosponsors appeared on the Kaptur bill:

• Pete Stark (D-Calif.),
• Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.), and
• Michael Capuano.

That brings the total number of cosponsors to 23, of which 3 are Republicans.

Sources in Washington emphasized that the momentum is building dramatically for Glass Steagall, and it is typical of Congress that multiple bills are introduced to feed the momentum and push fence-sitters into supporting the action. The fact that Conyers, Woolsey, and Capuano are co-sponsors on both bills underscores this point. EIR is still expecting a bipartisan Glass-Steagall bill to be introduced into the U.S. Senate at any time. The consensus among all the Glass-Steagall sponsors is that the bill must be actually passed through both Houses by a veto-proof majority, and that this will require a bipartisan patriotic effort, breaking the dirty deals between the Democratic and GOP Congressional leaders and Obama.

EIR

 

Motion for Glass-Steagall Accelerates

 

July 2, 2011 (EIRNS)—While there are still just 20 co-sponsors of Rep.Marcy Kaptur’s Glass-Steagall bill (H.R. 1489) in the House of Representatives, the motion for the bill around the United States continues to grow. Of note are two particular processes.

 

One is the activity by trade unionists, spurred in particular by the vote of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, to get their local central labor councils to pass endorsements of Glass-Steagall, and send them on to their Congressmen. This past week, an AFL-CIO-affiliated statewide organization of retirees in Wisconsin also endorsed the Kaptur bill.

 

The second is the motion being generated in the context of the tour by the Progressive Caucus Democrats in the House, which is holding town meetings on the question of jobs. Two of these meetings, one in Detroit and another in Milwaukee, have featured four Congressmen each, of which two at each meeting were co-sponsors of Glass-Steagall. When LaRouchePAC organizers spoke from the floor about Glass-Steagall, they elicited either spirited speeches for Glass-Steagall, or standing ovations from the audience for the Congressmen’s leadership on this question. Importantly, the events implicitly put significant pressure on the Congressmen present who had not yet signed on to the bill.

 

While much of the Democratic Party continues to be unresponsive, because of an immoral desire to maintain solidarity in the party, rather than stand up for necessity, a significant breakthrough was made among Democrats with the passage of a resolution for H.R. 1489 by the King County Democratic Central Committee (Seattle, Wash.), this week.

 

When Congress resumes July 5, it will become clearer how effective this grassroots mobilization has been.

EIR