WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Congressman David Wu issued the following statement after voting against the financial rescue package brought to the floor of the House of Representatives:

“We currently face a serious threat to our economy, and I do believe that we need to act to protect Americans’ jobs, retirement, and financial security.  Unfortunately, this hasty bill was not the right answer.  

I committed to the people of my district that I wouldn’t vote for a bill that didn’t have adequate protection for taxpayers, and this bill did not.    

Today’s bill put up taxpayer money without a commitment from the government that they would be paid back.  Instead, the American people were told that some future president would offer some future Congress a proposal to help taxpayers recoup any losses that they suffered—with no guarantee that they’d ever see their money again.

I am committed to staying here as long as it takes to do the right thing, because the taxpayers deserve better than the bill we had today.  They deserve a thoughtful solution with real investment protections.  They deserve meaningful regulations to rein in the over-the-top excesses of Wall Street.  They deserve to have the people who caused this problem bear some responsibility for fixing it.  And they deserve a bill that doesn’t just hope that a handout to Wall Street will trickle down to benefit Main Street.”

H.R. 3997, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, failed by a vote of 205-228.