MARATHON SESSION LEADS TO BREAKTHROUGH ON WALL STREET REFORM…. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t quick, and it wasn’t pretty, but seemingly-endless negotiations have produced a sweeping Wall Street reform package ready to be approved by both chambers.
Nearly two years after the American financial system teetered on the verge of collapse, Congressional negotiators reached agreement early Friday morning to reconcile competing versions of the biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression.
A 20-hour marathon by members of a House-Senate conference committee to complete work on toughened financial regulations culminated at 5:39 a.m. Friday in agreements on the two most contentious parts of the financial regulatory overhaul and a host of other provisions. Along party lines, the House conferees voted 20 to 11 to approve the bill; the Senate conferees voted 7 to 5 to approve.
Members of the conference committee approved proposals to restrict trading by banks for their own benefit and requiring banks and their parent companies to segregate much of their derivatives activities into a separately capitalized subsidiary.
The timing is especially helpful for President Obama, who leaves today for Canada for a G20 meeting, and who wanted to be able to tell global leaders that the United States is poised to complete its work on financial regulatory reform. Now, he’ll be able to do just that, and Obama spoke briefly to the press this morning to herald the legislative breakthrough, most notably the new consumer protection agency, and calling the larger package the “toughest” industry regulations in generations.
The NYT‘s report is worth reading in full, to get a sense of the changes that were made through the negotiations, most notably to the Volcker Rule. Note that while intense industry lobbying influenced the process, and produced “some specific exceptions to new regulations,” by and large “the bill’s financial regulations not only remained strong but in some cases gained strength.”
The House and Senate are expected to bring the conference committee bill to the floor next week. Senate Republicans will very likely launch a filibuster — they have no shame — but leaders are confident the legislation will pass.
And in the larger context, this will add to an impressive list of historic accomplishments spanning President Obama’s first 18 months in office, a list that will now include Wall Street reform, health care reform, student loan reform, economic recovery, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, expanded civil rights protections, expanded stem-cell research, new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, and the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, among other things.
Taegan Goddard noted this morning, “Not since FDR has a president done so much to transform the country.” That’s not a hyperbolic observation in the slightest.
