Byrd's absence could be problematic for financial regulation bill

House approves financial overhaul
Washington — The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a massive restructuring to the nation’s Financial laws last night, but the Senate canceled plans to vote on the Legislation this week after Senator Scott Brown said he was not ready to pledge support for the measure. The House, voting 237 to 192, capped an intense, yearlong debate spearheaded by Representative Barney Frank, who was hailed with handshakes, hugs, and applause from Democrats after the vote. The new...

Reid Delays Scheduling Vote on Financial Regulation
The Senate will not be able to complete Legislation to overhaul the nation's Financial regulatory system this week, the Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on Wednesday, after Senator Scott Brown , Republican of Massachusetts, announced that he would use the Fourth of July recess to study the Bill. The House is expected to approve the final version of the Bill later on Wednesday, but Mr. Reid conceded that he would not be able to schedule a vote in the Senate this week without the...

House Passes Wall Street Reform Bill, Senate Delays Action
Nearly two years after the nation's banking system imploded -- sending some major Financial Institutions to their doom and threatening others with collapse -- the House of Representatives passed a Financial Regulatory Reform Bill intended to ensure that such a calamity never happens again. Democrats portrayed the Bill as a much-needed measure designed to rein in Wall Street, protect Consumers and prevent future Financial crises. Announcing the Bill's passage by a largely party-line vote of 237...

House OKs sweeping bank rules; Senate vote awaits
Washington (AP) - Nearly two years after a Wall Street meltdown left The Economy reeling, the House on Wednesday passed a massive overhaul of Financial Regulations that would extend the Government's reach from storefront thrifts to the high-finance penthouses of New York City. Senate support for the far-reaching Bill remained in flux, however. The Senate was forced to delay its vote to mid-July, denying President Barack Obama a victory before Independence Day. Democrats struggled to secure the...

House passes sweeping bank rules
Washington (AP) — Nearly two years after a Wall Street meltdown left The Economy reeling, the House on Wednesday passed a massive overhaul of Financial Regulations that would extend the Government's reach from storefront thrifts to the high-finance penthouses of New York City. Senate support for the far-reaching Bill remained in flux, however. The Senate was forced to delay its vote to mid-July, denying President Barack Obama a victory before Independence Day. Democrats struggled...

House OKs sweeping bank rules; Senate vote awaits
Washington (AP) - Nearly two years after a Wall Street meltdown left The Economy reeling, the House on Wednesday passed a massive overhaul of Financial Regulations that would extend the Government's reach from storefront thrifts to the high-finance penthouses of New York City. Senate support for the far-reaching Bill remained in flux, however. The Senate was forced to delay its vote to mid-July, denying President Barack Obama a victory before Independence Day. Democrats struggled to secure the...

House passes landmark financial reform bill
Washington (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a landmark overhaul of Financial Regulations but the Senate put off action until mid-July, delaying a final victory for President Barack Obama. Politics Still, the 237 to 192 vote in the House marked a win for Obama and his fellow Democrats, who have made the most sweeping rewrite of Wall Street rules since the 1930s a top priority in the wake of the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis. "It has been a long fight against the...

The House Passed Financial Reform; Now What?
The House of Representatives passed a sweeping overhaul of America's Financial Sector and the regulatory structure that oversees it

Sen. Byrd's Death Makes the Financial Reform Vote a Lot Trickier
The death Sen. Robert Byrd , the longtime West Virginia Democrat, could throw a wrench in Democrats' plan to quickly pass the landmark Financial Reform Bill. Senate Democrats has been hoping to pass the Bill this week, giving President Barack Obama a key election-year victory and allowing him to sign it before the two-week July 4 recess. With Sen. Byrd's passing, the Senate now has 58 Democrats and Independents who Caucus with them -- two short of the 60 votes needed overcome a Republican...

Brown stalls finance bill with kind of deals he campaigned against
Washington — Republican Scott Brown owes his Election in part to the public furor over the so-called Cornhusker Kickback, the backroom deal that Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska struck for his vote to pass the Health-care bill. Now he is following Nelson's example, winning concessions in the Financial-overhaul bill on behalf of Massachusetts banks. The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved far-reaching new Financial Regulations, but Senate leaders postponed a similar vote on the bill,...

Senate GOP again kills jobless aid extension
Washington — For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate have successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing Unemployment checks to millions of people. But since Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to advance the $33 Billion measure, its passage seems assured next month once a replacement is named for Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, who died on Monday. Democrats would then have a Filibuster-proof Majority for the bill. About...

US House passes historic Wall Street overhaul
The US House of Representatives gave its final approval to the biggest overhaul of Wall Street rules since the Great Depression of the 1930s, leaving the landmark bill in the Senate's hands. Lawmakers voted 237-192, along party lines, to give Regulators an arsenal of new Weapons against risky investment practices blamed for the 2007-2009 global Financial Meltdown and hand President Barack Obama a major political win. "Today's vote is a victory for every American who has been affected by the...

Lawmakers Will Reopen Wall Street Reform Bill After Losing Senators' Votes
In the wake of the passing of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Senate Democrats were confronted with tricky math in their effort to pass the most sweeping Wall Street regulatory overhaul in decades. That math just got trickier. On Tuesday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) (pictured), one of the few Republicans to vote for the Bill, said he could no longer support it due to the inclusion of a $20 Billion Bank Tax Democrats had inserted to make the measure Budget neutral. Bank Tax is Sticking Point...

Delay looms as Wall St bill seen "too big to fail"
Washington (Reuters) - Political momentum was expected to carry a sweeping Wall Street Reform Bill to approval in the U.S. Congress, but the death of Senator Robert Byrd threatened to delay final action until mid-July. Politics Democratic backers of the Bill scrambled on Monday to replace a crucial Vote of support that was lost when Byrd, 92, passed away, with the Bill's fate turning on the views of a handful of Swing-vote senators. In the give-and-take of securing their support, Reform...

Senate GOP again kills jobless aid extension
Washington (AP) - For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate have successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing Unemployment checks to millions of people. But since Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to advance the $33 Billion measure, its passage seems assured next month once a replacement is named for Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, who died on Monday. Democrats would then have a Filibuster-proof Majority for the bill. About...

House Votes for FinReg Bill
Politico reports that the House has passed the Financial Reform Bill: The House approved sweeping Wall Street Reforms Wednesday, setting the stage for a final showdown in the Senate. The vote was 237-192 , largely along party lines. In the Senate, an extraordinary 11th-hour maneuver by Democrats to kill a Controversial bank fee opposed by key Republican senators got mixed results. And with the Legislation's final fate uncertain, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced he...

After the Bailouts, Washington's the Boss
By BOB DAVIS , DEBORAH SOLOMON and JON HILSENRATH Associated Press President Obama, with Congressional Financial committee leaders and his economic team in February. In 2008 and 2009, Washington strove to save The Economy. In 2010, Americans will get a clearer picture of how Washington has changed The Economy. Only as the Recession recedes will it become fully evident how permanently the state's role has expanded and whether, as a consequence, a new, hybrid strain of American Capitalism is...

Unemployment Extension Fails " Again " in the Senate
Tonight, a bill to extend federal Unemployment Insurance Benefits for the long-term unemployed failed in the Senate, 58 to 38. The vote was technically only one short of 60; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) voted no for procedural reasons. Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted for cloture on the $34 Billion bill, which was not offset and therefore increased the Deficit. But Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) refused to cross the aisle. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) voted...

Collins to Back Financial Reg Bill
U.S.A Today reports that GOP Sen. Susan Collins will back the new Financial Regulation bill in Congress: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said today she will support a reworked version of President Obama’s Wall Street Regulation bill, providing Democrats with their first bit of good news on the Legislation in several days. “It is imperative that Congress act to address the root causes of the Financial Crisis that has hurt small businesses and cost so many workers their jobs,”...

Bank bill faces House passage, Senate delays vote
Washington (AP) - A sweeping overhaul of Financial Regulations aimed at preventing another economic Crisis headed Wednesday for a final House vote after Democrats backed down on a $19 Billion tax they had added on big banks and Hedge Funds. The Senate, its votes still in flux, planned to take up the Bill in mid-July, denying President Barack Obama a victory before Independence Day. Democrats struggled to secure a handful of Republican Senate votes, even after backing down on the tax. The...

Financial-overhaul legislation could come to a vote Wednesday
Washington-House lawmakers appeared on the verge of a Wednesday vote on financial-overhaul Legislation after Democrats cobbled together a proposal to offset the cost of the wide-ranging changes. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were forced to scrap a proposed $18 Billion fee to be paid by big banks and Hedge Funds to pay for the Legislation after a handful of moderate Senate Republicans balked. Those lawmakers-Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Scott Brown of...

John B. Taylor: The Dodd-Frank Financial Fiasco
By JOHN B. TAYLOR The sheer complexity of the 2,319-page Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill is certainly a threat to future Economic Growth. But if you sift through the many sections and subsections, you find much more than complexity to worry about. The main problem with the Bill is that it is based on a misdiagnosis of the causes of the Financial Crisis, which is not surprising since the Bill was rolled out before the congressionally mandated Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission finished its...

US House passes historic Wall Street overhaul
The US House of Representatives gave its final approval to the biggest overhaul of Wall Street rules since the Great Depression of the 1930s, leaving the landmark bill in the Senate's hands. Lawmakers voted 237-192, along party lines, to give Regulators an arsenal of new Weapons against risky investment practices blamed for the 2007-2009 global Financial Meltdown and hand President Barack Obama a major political win. "Today's vote is a victory for every American who has been affected by the...

Voinovich: Reid More Interested in Bashing GOP Than Passing Unemployment Extension Bill
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) today is accusing Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate Majority Leader, of playing politics with the federal extension of Unemployment Benefits. He says Reid rejected a rejected a Compromise, offsetting half the cost of the bill with Stimulus money, to keep the blocked Unemployment extension as a cudgel against the GOP. Here is Voinovich’s full statement : I have supported tens-of-billions of dollars in assistance for unemployed families in Ohio...

Reid still short on unemployment vote
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday he is still short on votes needed to break a Republican Filibuster on a slimmed-down version of an Unemployment Benefits package. Reid intends to call a vote Thursday evening on the smaller Benefits bill — now paired with a homebuyer's credit provision that may help garner more support. But the Majority Leader conceded he might not be able to clear the bill before the July recess. A more comprehensive tax extenders and Unemployment...