On NBC's Meet The Press Sunday, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby predicted that all 41 GOP senators will vote to delay the start of debate on a financial reform bill sponsored by Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd. Shelby told NBC's David Gregory that the GOP is just not "there yet" when it comes to agreeing on a package of proposals that would regulate what's been on on Wall Street over the past decade (The bill is scheduled to be voted on at 5 p.m. today).
MR. GREGORY: But this is inches you're talking about.
SEN. SHELBY: Well—but inches sometimes are miles, but I'm hoping they're half-inches.
I think we're conceptually very, very close. This is a very complicated piece of legislation, over 1300 pages as the Dodd bill now stands. But we're—what we're trying to do is improve two or three things in it. It's, it's very, very tedious. We're going to continue to work today, as Senator Dodd said. I think we're closer than we've ever been. And will we get a bill by tomorrow? I, I doubt it. I would always hope so because there's so, so much involved. But I think we will get a bill. If the Democrats want a bill and will give us some things that we think that are substantive in nature, like make the "too big to fail," send a message that nothing is too big to fail in this country and tighten up the language. There's some flexibility in the language there that we're talking about is—and…
Meanwhile, at the same time on ABC's This Week, Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, who has been actively involved in negotiations with Dodd on crafting a financial reform bill, was asked if he would get behind the legislation as it stands today.
CORKER: Look, first of all, I think everybody knows, Sherrod sure knows I want to see a bill. I think we do need to address regulation in our financial markets. You know, it's in play right now. The fact is, I know that Shelby and Dodd are actually on another program this morning. After that program, I know they're going to continue meeting, hopefully getting to a compromise before tomorrow evening.
And I think what we need to do is have a template. We don't need to address every issue in this compromise, but one that deals with derivatives, one that deals with consumer protection, and one that deals with this orderly liquidation. If we can get that template agreed to in a bipartisan way, then we can debate some of the amendments that Sherrod Brown wants to bring forth, some of the amendments I want to bring forth. But I think it's very, very important that we reach that bipartisan agreement first, because in the Senate, as you know, it takes 60 votes to change anything.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2010.