Much Ado About Invites...

On the day when the President will sign into law the most sweeping reforms of the financial system since the Great Depression including the strongest consumer protections in history, there have been numerous reports on who is invited to the bill signing.

Let’s set the record straight with a  few facts:

1. There are 400 seats in the auditorium where the President is signing the bill today.
2. There are thousands of hardworking Americans including consumer advocates, members of Congress, Attorney Generals who have been working for eighteen months to pass Wall Street reform into law.
3. That means thousands of people who worked toward passing the bill into law will not be able to attend the signing today.
4. Bill signings have always been a celebration and our priority was to invite a diverse group of stakeholders including members of the financial industry, consumer advocates, members of Congress and Americans impacted by the financial crisis—who were instrumental in making today possible. 
5. This is a fake controversy. The CEO’s who opposed reform never expected to be invited to the bill signing and not a single one has complained to the Administration.  In fact Administration officials have been in touch with many of the same CEOs about a number of issues over the last few days and this issue has not even registered.  Many of the same CEOs are meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron in New York City this morning.

Given the bill signing, Republican attempts to block the extension of UI benefits and the small business bill on the Senate floor—you would think there is plenty of substantive news to cover.

But instead some are focusing  today on who made the cut on the invitation list----let’s focus on what this bill means for millions of Americans.

Jen Psaki is Deputy Communications Director