Democrats Lack Votes For Financial Reform, Where's Pelosi?

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Shelby: Dems Will Lack Votes Monday For Financial Reform


Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and the committee's ranking Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, said Sunday they don't have a deal yet on the financial regulatory reform bill - but said they were on the verge of one.

"We're getting there, we're close," Dodd said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think Richard and I have a pretty good understanding of where we are on the bill."

"We're closer than we've ever been," Shelby said, adding that there are "two or three things" that need to be resolved, singling out efforts to end "too-big-to-fail" financial institutions.

The two men and their staffs planned to meet later Sunday, but Shelby said they needed more time to get a deal. The Republican also said that Democrats "will not get cloture" when they try to break a GOP filibuster to bring a bill that passed the Banking Committee to the Senate floor Monday evening.

"Will we get a bill tomorrow?" Shelby said on the same program. "I doubt it."

Both men suggested they were still negotiating how to deal with provisions that would wind down troubled institutions and attempt to ensure that taxpayers won't be on the hook for future bailouts.

Dodd said they were "down to the point of whether Congress should be involved" on the matter. But Shelby said the bill would still give too much flexibility to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to help distressed financial institutions.

Shelby said the Dodd bill "now as constituted" will not pass the Senate. But both senators were optimistic that they could get a deal sometime this week.


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Sources: MSNBC, Meet The Press, Politico, Google Maps