Wall Street Bill Will Receive Bipartisan Backing, Predict Democrats

By Laurel Brishel Prichard
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) predicted on Wednesday that Republicans that are retiring or up for re-election later this year will soon be changing their stances on Wall Street reform.

"We would love to see some bipartisanship on this bill," said Brown. "I think we will see it."

Brown added that certain Republicans are already beginning to change their minds about the legislation. As evidence, he cited the decision by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who faces re-election this fall, to vote with Democrats in the Senate Agriculture Committee on a derivatives regulation bill.

"If you look at a list of what Republicans are up for re-election in 2010 you might correspond to bet who ends up voting procedurally to get this bill moving," said Brown.

Dodd Confident Senate Will Make Progress On Financial Reform This Week

By Laurel Brishel Prichard University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) expressed confidence Monday that the Senate will make headway on financial regulatory reform this week, despite mounting challenges from Republicans.

“I'm going to work on the assumption … that when we bring this bill up later this week that we'll have the votes across the board...to allow us to debate this legislation, consider amendments and move forward," said Dodd during a morning press conference.

Dodd added that if Republicans have suggestions for a better strategy toward reforming regulation of the financial industry, then they need to come forward soon. Otherwise, the effort to move forward with the legislation will continue.

“The door has been open … it’s never been closed. My Republican colleagues on the committee and leadership know that,” Dodd explained. “But I’m waiting for the knock on the door.”

The legislation would put a $50 billion fund in place that “too big to fail” banks would pay into in order to ensure that they would receive assistance if they ever came into hardship. According to Dodd, the idea for the program, similar to what smaller banks do with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, came from the Republicans, so their recent opposition was not foreseen.

“This was a Republican suggestion to have a pre-payment in the bill,” said Dodd. “I’m willing to listen to some other ideas, provided we don’t expose the taxpayer [to risk.]”

According to the chairman, reform legislation would have prevented Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from committing fraud, as alleged recently by the Securities Exchange Commission.

“Our bill would have prevented those kinds of events from happening,” said Dodd.

Reid: Financial Reform Could Hit Senate Floor By Next Week

By Laurel Brishel Prichard University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Thursday that he is pushing to get a full financial reform bill onto the Senate floor as early as next week.

Reid, along with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) stressed that reform of the nation's financial system would not only protect the taxpayers, but make sure that institutions would not become “too big too fail”.

“[Republicans] seem clearly focused on protecting these big banks,” said Reid “It’s as simple as this: if you want a financial system that allows banks to become too big to fail, puts your retirement security in jeopardy and leaves consumers vulnerable to excessive risk, then you should support the Republican plan.”

The legislation would put in place a better regulatory oversight program to prevent the financial system from triggering another recession.

“Everyone agrees that our regulatory [system] is broken down,” said Schumer.

Schumer added that Republican warnings that the reform plan fails to act as a safeguard against future bailouts is unfounded. According to the New York Senator, the money that would go for any future bailout of a large institution would have to come from the institution itself, and not the taxpayers.