Senate paves way for passage of financial overhaul bill

story by Washington Post
written by Brady Dennis


The Senate on Thursday morning cleared a key procedural hurdle in the effort to pass far-reaching new financial regulations, garnering enough support to overcome the threat of a filibuster and pave the way for a final vote this afternoon.

Three Republicans -- Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine -- helped Democrats reach the critical 60-vote threshold. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin was the lone Democrat to vote against the procedural measure.

The Senate is now set to give its stamp of approval to the sweeping bill, ending more than a year of wrangling over the shape of the new rules and sending the landmark legislation to President Obama for his signature. The final vote Thursday afternoon will require only a majority of senators.

The House passed the bill last month.

The 2,300-page Dodd-Frank bill is named after Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who ushered it through the Congress. It creates an independent consumer bureau within the Federal Reserve to protect borrowers from lending abuses, establishes oversight of the vast derivatives market and gives the government power to seize and wind down large, troubled financial firms.

The legislation places much faith and authority in regulators to spot brewing problems in the financial system and prevent another crisis.

"This isn't about dollars and cents only," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday. It's about fairness; it's about justice; it's about making sure that there's not a next time. It's about jobs. It's about rescuing our economy."

Most Republicans continued to argue that the bill is mostly about bigger and more intrusive government. They insisted that it would undermine the competitiveness of the American economy, stifle growth and kill jobs in the middle of an ongoing recession.

"The White House will call this a victory," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "But as credit tightens, regulations multiply and job creation slows even further as a result of this bill, they'll have a hard time convincing the American people that this is a victory for them."