Oh, so this is the strategy
March 28, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)Yet another reporter this he knows the strategy behind the Senate financial reform legislation:
Making It Dodd’s Bill
Shelby was convinced that offering amendments in committee would be a fruitless endeavor. He now may be seeking to work with Dodd to craft a broad bipartisan amendment to offer when the bill hits the Senate floor. If that happens, Shelby could potentially bring something like half of the Republicans in the Senate with him. From what I hear, the ideological divide between the two parties isn’t as great as you might think — nothing like it was with health care reform. If several changes are made, many Republicans could jump on board.
Dodd might really like this approach. It’s his final term in the Senate, and there’s little doubt that he’d love this to be his bill — not House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s bill. Remember, even if Dodd loses half-a-dozen liberal Democrats, if he gets 20 or so moderate Republicans, a bipartisan bill will easily pass.
And if he gets bipartisan support in the Senate, it would be very difficult, politically, if the House and White House reject his changes — even though they might be tempted to pull the bill further left. If they did, when the bill goes back to the Senate after conference, then those Republican votes would be lost and Dodd would have to hope a few decide to stick around.
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