Democrats worked Tuesday “on changes to their imperiled financial services reform deal after it became clear that they were short on votes for the package in the Senate,” Roll Call reports.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said his chamber will wait for Senate Democrats to negotiate changes needed to lock down 60 votes for a Wall Street reform bill before taking action on the measure.
Also Tuesday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) announced he would not vote for the financial reform conference report agreed to last week by House and Senate negotiators. Brown voted for the Senate version of the bill, and supporters of the legislation had hoped he also would support the conference report.
Leaving a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other top House Democrats on Tuesday morning, Frank said Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was “having some last-minute conversations” to nail down the 60 votes needed for the Senate to thwart a GOP filibuster of the bill.
The Monday death “of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), coupled with opposition from Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and wavering support from two key Maine Republican moderates has left Dodd short of the votes needed to pass a version of the conference report that was hammered out late last week.”
The issue in play:
“We’re waiting to hear,” Frank said, adding that the “only issue” still in play was a $19 billion levy on banks and hedge funds that was added to the bill in conference and has turned off some Republicans who initially supported the measure.
Talking Points Memo on how easy these changes are to make:
Here’s the thing, though: They can’t change the conference report. It’s unamendable. To accommodate Brown, the House and Senate would have to reconvene the conference committee, which could easily imperil their plan to get the bill to President Obama by the end of the week, ahead of the July 4 recess.
(credit image – daylife/getty)
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