Financial Reform Bill Fate Uncertain in Senate

The death of Senator Robert C. Boyd of West Virginia has Senate Democrats scrambling this week to win approval of the financial regulation bill that was approved by a House-Senate conference committee last Friday.

“We are down a vote,” Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, told the New York Times. “We have got some work to do.”

Democrats need to retain the remaining 57 Democratic and Independent senators, plus at least three Republicans to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the legislation for the most sweeping financial overhaul since the 1930s, the Wall Street Journal reported. As of Monday, no Republican has committed to voting for the bill.

Along with losing Byrd’s vote, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) told the Journal he wouldn’t vote to advance the bill because it wasn’t tough enough. Two Republicans, Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, are undecided due to their reservations about the cost of the bill. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, the fee could total $17.9 billion, the Journal said.

The Senate hopes to have the final vote this week to send the bill to President Barack Obama before the July 4 recess but would wait until the House passes the bill before considering its timing. According to the Journal, the House is due to push the legislation forward this week, with a final “yes” vote most likely occurring Wednesday.