–Senate Majority Leader: GOP Blocking Bid to ‘Reform Wall Street’
–Senate Democrats Have Reached Out to Republicans on Fin Reg Reform
–Agriculture Panel to Pass Derivatives Language Next Wednesday

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday
the full Senate will begin its debate on financial regulatory reform as
early as next week.

Reid said regulatory reform is now ready for consideration by the
full Senate.

“We have talked about this enough. We have negotiated enough,” he
said at a briefing.

Reid said the Senate Agriculture Committee will pass a bill dealing
with regulation of derivatives next Wednesday and this will be joined
with the package crafted by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris
Dodd.

Democrats have reached out to key Republicans on regulatory reform
efforts, he said, citing Dodd’s talks with both Sen. Richard Shelby and
Sen. Bob Corker from the Banking Committee.

“There has been a lot of work done with Republicans,” Reid said,
but Republicans have been “opposing our efforts to reform Wall Street”
and have been working to “protect big banks.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a senior Democrat on the Banking Committee,
blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for making confusing and
inaccurate attacks on the bill that was crafted by Dodd.

“Nobody knows what he is saying,” Schumer said of McConnell.

McConnell has said this week that Dodd’s bill not only fails to end
the possibility of future government bailouts of financial firms, but
makes it “official government policy to bail out the biggest Wall Street
banks.” McConnell said Senate Democrats have crafted a “partisan bill”
that they intend to “jam” through the Senate.

The Senate Banking Committee approved Dodd’s regulatory reform bill
on March 22 on a party-line 13 to 10 vote. All Democrats supported the
bill and all Republicans opposed it.

Dodd’s package establishes a new independent Consumer Protection
Bureau at the Federal Reserve Board, creates a process to liquidate
failed financial firms, sets up a council of regulators to oversee
systemic risk in the economy, establishes a regulatory structure for
over-the-counter derivatives, requires hedge funds that manage over $100
million to register with the SEC and creates a new office within
Treasury to monitor the insurance industry.

Reid has said he wants the Senate to pass a regulatory reform bill
by the end of May.

President Barack Obama has said financial regulatory reform is one
of his chief goals for the rest of this legislative session and he and
officials including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have pledged to
fight any efforts to weaken the plan.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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