Showdown: Senate to Debate Financial Takeover

By Shailagh Murray and Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 29, 2010; A10

Republicans ended their three-day filibuster of a financial regulatory overhaul Wednesday, reaching agreement with Democrats to begin debate on a bill aimed at curbing the risky investment practices that brought the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse.

After voting three times this week to block debate, GOP senators decided to reverse course and attempt to reshape the bill through the amendment process. The change in tactics came after Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), announced that they had again reached an impasse in their efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise.

Democrats had embraced the GOP filibuster as an opportunity to portray Republicans as defenders of powerful special interests, in particular major banks and investment houses. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had threatened to keep the Senate in session overnight Wednesday to reap maximum political benefits.

Speaking at a rally in Quincy, Ill., an economically depressed Mississippi River town, President Obama hailed the bill’s advancement and assured an exuberant audience of 2,300 people that the financial sector would face tough new restrictions. “It was one of those heads, they [win] — tails, you lose” situations on Wall Street, Obama said. “What was working for them was not working for ordinary Americans.”

After Shelby and Dodd announced their impasse, Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered back-to-back Senate floor statements, agreeing that proceedings would begin at 12:15 p.m. Thursday. Reid said he would allow votes on numerous GOP amendments, a pledge that some Republican senators had sought before agreeing to lift their objections.

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