By Saniya Ghanoui -- July 1, 2010
In a small victory for President Barack Obama, the U.S. House of Representatives passed new reform regarding financial regulations in order to avoid another economic meltdown.
The 237-192 House vote marked the largest rewrite of Wall Street rules since the 1930s.
With the death of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and the week-long July 4 holiday, the Senate will not see the bill until mid July. Even then, it is not certain that Democrats have rounded up enough Republican votes in order to stop a filibuster.
However, Obama was please with the outcome by the House.
"It has been a long fight against the defenders of the status quo on Wall Street, but today's vote is a victory for every American who has been affected by the recklessness and irresponsibility that led to the loss of millions of jobs and trillions in wealth," Obama said in a statement.
Republicans were overwhelmingly against the bill saying it would bring about too much government regulation.
"All this bill before us does is perpetuate the same dumb regulation that got us into this financial pickle in the first place," said Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.).
Several key, moderate Republicans voted for an earlier version of the bill but were unhappy with a new tax in this version. That $17.9 billion tax was on large financial organizations and the money would go to cover the cost of the bill.
Democrats scrapped the tax portion of the bill in a negotiating session Tuesday in order to please the key Republicans, including Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown.
Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is the main supporter of the bill and he cautioned the Senate to realize nothing is perfect but that does not mean the proposal should not be supported.
"No one's going to get everything they want in this bill, I certainly didn't. I've done everything I know how to do to accommodate my colleagues to make this as fair, as balanced, as thoughtful as I possibly could," said Dodd.
The bill would increase consumer protection, start a new course for closing giant financial firms in trouble and require banks to lower trading and investing activities that are too risky.
(Photo courtesy: AP Images)
