With Senate majority leader Harry Reid calling for a vote Monday on new financial regulation, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) appeared on Meet the Press with his banking committee counterpart, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), to discuss Wall Street reform.
Shelby told Meet the Press that a reform bill is close, but that Democrats do not yet have the votes needed to bring the bill to the Senate floor.
Senate Republicans seemed entrenched against financial reform until last week when the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Goldman Sachs in civil court. The lawsuit accuses the Wall Street giant of designing financial instruments to fail so that the bank could bet against them. Then, on Saturday, a Senate subcommittee released internal Goldman Sachs emails that seemed to indicate the bank was hoping to use the mortgage crisis for its own gain.
Sen. Richard Shelby appeared with Sen. Chris Dodd to promise financial reform would pass, eventually.
The lawsuit and emails have emboldened Democrats. Now rather than waiting on the banking committee to negotiate a more passable bill, Democrats are pushing the bill to a vote on the Senate floor.
Republicans have cried foul, but judging from Shelby’s demeanor Sunday morning, they do not want to be seen as obstructing financial reform.
While Shelby tempered expectations for passing a bill tomorrow, he and Dodd seemed in agreement that reform is essential and both delivered tough talk.
“We’ve got to end once and for all the casino atmosphere of Wall Street,” Shelby said.
According to Shelby and Dodd, financial reform must ensure that banks that fail are broken up, even if that leaves bank stockholders with empty pockets.
The bill does not address the role of ratings agencies, which have failed repeatedly to sound alarms of market disasters, nor does it seek to fix lax regulatory agencies that seem unable to take preventative action against such disasters.
Meet the Press host David Gregory questioned both men about the influence of Wall Street’s campaign dollars. Dodd and Shelby have received substancial contributions from the very institutions they’re now seeking to regulate. Since 1989, Shelby has received more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions from the financial industry. Dodd has received more than $6.2 million and President Barack Obama has taken in almost $16 million.
Dodd dismissed any notion that campaign contributions affect votes, but he warned of a lobbyist blitz against the reforms, now that a bill seems likely to pass.
Shelby ended the discussion Sunday agreeing that a bill in some form will become law.
“I don’t beleive the Dodd bill as it is now constituted will pass, I believe the Dodd bill as it is reconsituted will pass,” Shelby said.
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