GOP to lift block on bill

April 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Republicans set the stage Wednesday to lift their blockade against legislation to tighten regulations on Wall Street, opening a road to likely passage for the most sweeping rewrite since the Great Depression.

GOP lawmakers said they now would try to change the bill on the Senate floor. Democrats said the Republicans simply had realized they were losing the battle for public opinion.

Earlier in the day, Republican senators had blocked the beginning of floor debate for a third-straight day, contending they needed more time to try to work out compromises with Democrats in private talks. Republicans huddled in the late afternoon on their next step.

There had been signs that some Republicans were growing weary of continuing to block the bill after President Barack Obama and other Democrats accused them of siding with Wall Street, an institution that rivals Congress in its unpopularity.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said Tuesday he would vote to let the bill advance to the Senate floor if bipartisan talks were no longer progressing.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Wednesday, “There’s been immense pressure bottled up inside the Republican caucus through these last three votes. A lot of their members have been very deeply unhappy with the direction their leadership has been taking them. Better heads prevailed.”

Obama, winding up a Midwest tour promoting the legislation, said he was pleased the debate would proceed.

The bill would establish a nine-member Financial Services Oversight Council, including the treasury secretary, Federal Reserve chairman and the heads of regulatory agencies to monitor markets for threats, such as the bubble in housing prices and mortgage-backed securities that preceded the financial collapse two years ago.

The Federal Reserve would begin policing large bank-holding companies and interconnected nonbank institutions whose collapse might pose a threat to the economy.