Senators Working on Financial Reform

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd asked important members of his committee to form bipartisan groups as part of an effort to "break the logjam" on financial reform legislation. The idea for this new plan came up on Saturday night right after the health care vote, this plan calls for each 2 people team to focus on one of the complicated issues that is included in the 1,136 page discussion draft that Dodd unveiled a couple weeks ago on Nov. 14. Dodd will pair up with Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama to work on two of the most difficult and controversial elements: prudential regulation of banks and consumer protection. Dodd proposed to create a single federal banking regulator out of the many agencies that supervise them, including removing the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank supervisory powers. A new measure to create a new consumer financial protection agency that the Obama administration wants has emerged as the biggest partisan issue of the reform debate. Sens. Jack Reed and Judd Gregg will focus on tackling derivatives and credit rating agencies. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mike Crapo will work on executive compensation and corporate governance and Sens. Mark Warner and Bob Corker will work on two of the more complicated pieces: systemic risk and resolution authority.