Mar 12, 2010

"First-term Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., have been at the center of the extended bipartisan negotiations in their chamber to restructure the regulation of financial institutions. As Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., moved closer to releasing a final bill, Warner and Corker joined Atlantic Media Political Director Ronald Brownstein and CongressDaily financial reporter Bill Swindell at a "National Journal Live" panel on March 10 to discuss the emerging legislation, particularly their attempt to construct a new system for handling the failure of systemically risky institutions.

Dodd stunned Washington the next morning by announcing that he would move to markup without a final agreement with Corker. At a subsequent press conference, Corker said they had been "on the 5-yard line" of reaching a deal but that Dodd was under pressure to push ahead quickly on the bill.

Also joining the NJ panel to discuss the legislation's prospects were Consumer Federation of America Legislative Director Travis Plunkett; Independent Community Bankers of America President Camden Fine; Credit Union National Association President Daniel Mica; and Jill Hershey, vice president for government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable. Edited excerpts follow.

NJ: When can we expect a financial regulatory reform bill to emerge in the Senate?

Corker: The goal is to get something out pretty soon, so that during this time before the Easter recess we have the ability to probably move something out of the Banking Committee -- if everybody would just kind of chill. What I mean by that is, there are a lot of things being said that just are not accurate, and it's actually complicating things to some degree because we're busy trying to respond to things that aren't even in [the bill]. We're trying to achieve a balance, and I think that at this point, we've done a really good job."

Click to go to the National Journal magazine website and view the entire article.