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The prospects for Sen. Chris Dodd’s financial-reform overhaul received a much needed bipartisan boost today, as Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking member on the Senate banking committee, has reportedly rejoined negotiations with Dodd, the committee’s chair. Shelby had abandoned the negotiations earlier this month, largely over disagreements on whether Senate’s financial-reform bill should include an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a centerpiece of the House’s financial-reform bill passed in December. Dodd’s had replaced Shelby with Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) as his Republican counterpart a few weeks ago.
Along with the news of Shelby’s return are reports that the release of Sen. Dodd’s bill might not occur until next week, a revision of earlier statements by a banking committee spokeswoman, Kirstin Brost, that a draft would come out this week and would be marked up next week. With Shelby now back in the mix, however, the fate of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency again hangs in the balance, and the agency could end up being folded into an existing department, like the Treasury, as Republicans like Sen. Corker have previously suggested.
