What goes around

In 1999, Congress voted to pass a “Financial Modernization Act.” It was so modern that it took Wall Street and the nation back to the kind of unregulated financial dealings that existed in the 1920s. Specifically, it repealed the second Glass-Steagall Act, passed by Congress in 1933 to prevent another Wall Street crash. Three of Nevada’s four congressmembers—Sen. Harry Reid and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley—voted for the repeal. Sen. Richard Bryan voted against it.

The next Wall Street crash came just nine years later, in 2008.

In 2010, Congress reinstated some of the protections in a new law, Dodd-Frank, and added some additional safeguards.

On June 8, the U.S. House voted for a “Financial Choice Act” that repeals many of the protections in Dodd-Frank. Nevada now has four U.S. House members, and three of them—Ruben Kihuen, Jacky Rosen, and Dina Titus—voted against repealing any of Dodd-Frank. Rep. Mark Amodei was the one vote who supported the repeal bill.