Sen. Judd Gregg (R-RI), a top senator with a hand in financial regulatory reform, held out hope today that the Senate’s bill to rewrite the rules of our financial markets could still garner bipartisan support. “I hope we’ll do a negotiated compromise because there’s not really a big partisan divide here,” Gregg told a Bloomberg radio program. “It’s just a question of getting it right.”
The bill, which is set to hit the Senate floor tomorrow or Thursday, has become the latest lightning rod issue to divide the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sparked the partisan bickering by disingenuously saying the bill would lead to “endless taxpayer-funded bailouts”; soon after, all 41 Republicans in the Senate signed a letter opposing the current version of reform legislation. That divide between Democrats and Republicans has been exacerbated by an armada of Wall Street and other financial lobbyists seeking to water down the Senate’s financial reform bill and play members of both parties off of each other. The challenge facing Democrats is rounding up one or two or three GOP votes to overcome Republicans’ potential filibuster and pass the bill, which could be voted on as early as Monday of next week.
