The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO SCOTT ALVAREZ” mentioning the Federal Reserve System was published in the Senate section on pages S4186 on July 25, 2017.
The Federal Reserve is the US's central bank, expanding many times during great financial uncertainty and panic. It has faced numerous criticisms since its creation in 1913, such as making the Great Depression worse and for lacking transparency and audits.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO SCOTT ALVAREZ
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, today the Senator from Ohio and I wish to speak about Scott Alvarez, general counsel of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Mr. Alvarez is retiring after a 36-year career with the Board of Governors, including the last 12 as general counsel.
He joined the board's legal division in 1981, immediately after graduating from Georgetown Law School, and worked as a staff attorney on bank regulatory issues for many years, until he was named general counsel in 2004.
In that role, he served as a key adviser to Chairmen Greenspan and Bernanke and Chair Yellen.
He was also general counsel of the Federal Open Market Committee, and he was the chief lawyer in carrying out some of the Fed's other roles, including overseeing the payments system and issuing currency.
I have enjoyed working with Mr. Alvarez over the years and have appreciated the insights and feedback he has provided to me and the Banking Committee.
On a personal note, his help was particularly valuable in 2006, when the Senate passed the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006, which was then signed into law by President Bush.
I want to thank Mr. Alvarez for his assistance on that bill and others and for his service to the Federal Reserve and to the country.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I want to echo the comments of the senior Senator from Idaho, the chairman of the Banking Committee, and thank Mr. Alvarez for his service at the Federal Reserve.
I specifically want to thank him for his service during the financial crisis of 2008. Our country faced daunting challenges during that period, and the Federal Reserve and the government's response to the financial crisis was not an easy undertaking.
The crisis demanded great effort and ingenuity from many people. It required close coordination across the executive branch, the regulatory agencies, Congress, and the private sector. Working with key decisionmakers at the board and throughout the government, Mr. Alvarez played an important role in developing and articulating the legal dimensions to virtually every initiative taken by the Federal Reserve to address the crisis.
Mr. Alvarez also worked closely with Congress during consideration of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and played a crucial role in implementing rulemakings required of the Federal Reserve by Dodd-Frank. I am particularly grateful for the work he did to implement strong rules to increase the capital and leverage requirements for the Nation's largest banks--a necessary and critical step after the crisis--and the work that he did with my office in making one of the first substantive amendments to Dodd-Frank related to capital standards for insurance companies.
Scott Alvarez has served the Federal Reserve and the American people with great distinction and deserves thanks for a job well done.
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