After months of negotiation, Senator Dodd gave up on his negotiations with Republicans and decided to introduce a financial industry reform bill all by himself.
To promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘‘too big to fail’’, to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.
Now what?
Well, there’s a lot of reading. The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 is a whopping 1,336 pages. That’s a hundred or so pages longer the House’s Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in December.
Apparently none of the 10 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee endorse Dodd’s Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. I assume he can muster the Democrats on the committee to pass the bill. Then he has to get the votes lined up in the full Senate. That will likely mean having to make some changes to the bill. Assuming he can gather that many votes, then they need to negotiate a compromise law with the House so that the bill is in a final form that both legislative bodies will approve (or vote down).
I wouldn’t get too attached to anything in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. One thing that’s certain: the bill will look different.
How will it be different? I’m not even going to guess.
Sources:
- Summary of the Bill
- Full Text of the Bill
- Dissecting the Dodd Bill by Matt Kelly in Compliance Week‘s The Big Picture
- Dodd Unveils Sweeping Financial Regulation Plan
- House Passes Far-Reaching Bill Tightening Financial Rules -previous post.
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