HJR19 Summary

• Urges Congress to reinstate the separation of commercial and investment banking functions that were previously in effect under the Glass-Steagall Act.

• Calls for Congress to support efforts to return to national banking policies to repair the nation's infrastructure through direct credit to industry and infrastructure investment.

• Cites the Federal Reserve's creation of a speculative bubble tied to more than $250 trillion in derivatives on Wall Street books and resulting weak economic performance and state budget constraints.

• References historical precedent of national banking policies under Presidents Washington, Adams, Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation approved in 1932 as models for economic recovery.

• Proposes chartering a new national bank with at least $1 trillion in capital (not taxpayer funds) to finance projects and employ millions of unemployed or underemployed people, particularly young people.