Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Sen. Rod Grams, chairman of the Subcommittee on Securities, have expressed their gratitude for the number and variety of suggestions they received for legislation that will bolster the efficiency of U.S. securities and debt markets.

"This is what we were looking for," Gramm said. "We've received a lot of new ideas for improving the quality and functioning of the securities markets. We want to examine them all with an eye on our main goal: producing a bipartisan, consensus bill that will lead to better access and better prices for investors."

Among the proposals received by the senators were suggestions from the Securities Industry Association, the Bond Market Association, the Investment Counsel Association of America, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, the American Bankers Association and the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Securities and Exchange Commission offered ideas, as did the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange.

"We are pleased with the input we have received from the private sector and from federal and state regulators," Grams said. "I look forward to working with Senator Chris Dodd and other subcommittee members in the next several weeks to air some of these ideas. Hearings will help us to prepare bipartisan and meaningful legislation."

The senators and their staffs are reviewing the suggestions they have received and plan to begin drafting legislation after the Senate considers S. 900, the Financial Services Modernization Act, which would remove the Depression-era barriers that separate banking from insurance and securities.