U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd reportedly has reached an impasse with his Republican counterpart on the Senate Banking Committee over financial industry reforms and has instructed his staff to draft legislation for the committee to consider later this month.
Dodd said he hopes to still be able to arrive at a consensus with Republicans led by co-chair Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, according to Politico and several other publications Friday.
Dodd has been pressing for strong consumer protections as part of any bill, with Republicans countering that his proposal would be too restrictive and limit the availability of credit. Dodd would need support from some Republicans to avoid a filibuster in any vote on the Senate floor.
“Nearly two years after the collapse of Bear Stearns, we still have not updated the laws governing our financial sector, leaving our fragile economy with the same vulnerabilities that led to the economic crisis in the first place,” Dodd said Thursday, at a hearing that included representatives of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, along with the retired chairman of Citigroup. “From where I”™m sitting, it looks like instead of investing in improvements that would secure their financial strength, too many people in the industry have decided to invest in an army of lobbyists whose only mission is to kill the common sense financial reforms we have been working so hard to achieve.”
