Dodd moves forward on reform bill

Dodd moves forward on reform bill
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: March 11 2010 15:50 | Last updated: March 11 2010 15:50
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bbfe4e22-2d1c-11df-8025-00144feabdc0.html


Chris Dodd, the Senate banking committee chairman, said on Thursday that he would introduce a financial regulatory reform bill next week in a substantial move forward for one of President Barack Obama’s legislative priorities.

No Republicans had signed on at this stage and Mr Dodd acknowledged in a statement that “a few outstanding issues remain” – chief among them is a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which the White House says is vital to fight against the mis-selling of loans but which Republicans and the US Chamber of Commerce characterise as an expensive and interventionist bureaucracy.

Bob Corker, a Republican member of the committee, was set to talk about the proposal at a news conference. Mr Corker broke from his party colleagues to take up negotiations with Mr Dodd.

“On Monday, I will present to my colleagues a substitute to the original financial reform package, unveiled last November,” said Mr Dodd in a statement. That draft proposal, which removed the Federal Reserve’s bank supervision powers, was received poorly in the Senate.

Gruelling talks since then, first with Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the banking committee, then with Mr Corker, representing the Republicans, have failed to produce agreement but Democrats believe they are close enough to advance to a mark-up of the bill.

Only one Republican vote is needed in theory to approve the legislation, which would push more over-the-counter derivatives through central clearing and create a “resolution authority” to seize and wind-down a failing systemically significant financial company.

However, people involved hope that a greater bipartisan vote can be achieved to ensure passage.

“Over the last few months, banking committee members have worked together to try and produce a consensus package,” said Mr Dodd. “Together we have made significant progress and resolved a many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain.”

“It has always been my goal to produce a consensus package. And we have reached a point where bringing the bill to the full committee is the best course of action to achieve that end. I plan to hold a full committee markup the week of March 22nd.”