Financial Regulations Still Face Delays, Disputes

A tentative agreement in hand, Democrats and Republicans still face an array of hurdles and uncertain timing over a Senate bill that would rein in financial institutions.

While Democrats agreed to jettison a $50 billion fund to liquidate large, failing firms, disputes over consumer protections, Federal Reserve oversight and regulation of complex securities are for the moment beyond compromise. Democrats and Republicans were preparing to fight those issues out on the Senate floor.

Heading into Wednesday, the Senate had yet to take a vote on any amendment to the bill. The Senate's Republican and Democratic leaders bickered over timing. And while debate was well on its way, the endgame for the bill was far from clear.

"They're stalling everything we do," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid complained Tuesday evening. He called for the bill to be completed by the end of next week.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had a different timetable in mind. "I must tell you, I don't think this is a couple-of-weeks bill," he said. "It's not that we don't want to pass it, but we do want to cover the subject."

With 41 seats, Republicans have the votes to prevent a final vote as long as they remain united.

The House has cleared its version of the measure.

In their willingness to drop the $50 billion fund, Senate Democrats on Tuesday abandoned a provision that Republicans attacked repeatedly as a perpetual Wall Street bailout-in-waiting. The Obama administration also did not support the fund, which would have been financed by an assessment on large financial institutions.

Dropping the fund means the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would have to borrow from the Treasury to cover the initial costs of liquidating a large, interconnected firm that is collapsing. That means taxpayers would essentially front the money.

But in their deal, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and the committee's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, would require the FDIC to recoup those costs from the sale of a failing firm's assets and from the firm's creditors. Additional costs could be paid by assessing a fee on large banks, but only as a last resort.

Dodd and Shelby had not formalized the agreement pending a review by key lawmakers and the Obama administration.

Once that negotiation is sealed, Republicans intend to seek changes through amendments to the legislation's consumer protection provisions, which they say are too onerous, and to expand exceptions in the regulation of complex securities. Several Democrats aim to make the bill tougher on banks, calling for limits on bank size or restrictions on their ability to trade on their own accounts.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, had obtained bipartisan support for an amendment that would require an extensive audit of the Federal Reserve. Administration and Fed officials were opposing the measure, saying it would interfere with the Fed's independence in setting monetary policy.