With the health care reform now out of the hands of Congress, there is now movement with financial overhaul. Senator Dodd introduced the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 last week without a Republican co-sponsor [Dodd Goes Solo].
Instead plugging in amendments, the Senate Banking Committee voted on straight party lines to advance the bill as introduced by Senator Dodd. The bill is moving so fast that it has not even made into the Thomas system for tracking legislative activity. The vote on Monday night lasted less than 25 minutes.
According to reports, Republicans filed more than 200 amendments on Friday, but withdrew all of them and let the bill pass quickly through committee. I assume the strategy will be to attack the bill in the full Senate instead of in the Banking Committee.
UPDATE: There were 114 pages of amendments
made to the bill. Most look like clean-ups and small changes that do not have a big impact on the bill.
Sources:
- Financial Overhaul Advances by Damian Paletta in the Wall Street Journal
- Obama, Lawmakers React to Senate Panel Vote on Banking Rules by Damian Paletta in the Wall Street Journal
- Senate panel passes sweeping financial-regulation bill by David Cho and Brady Dennis in the Washington Post
- Senate panel plans financial reform vote Monday from Reuters