Enough Votes for Reform

Democrats say they have pulled together the 60 votes they need in the U.S. Senate to get past filibusters pass a financial reform bill.

To get over the hump, Democrats need the support of Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

The bill, a signature piece of legislation for President Barack Obama, sets up a system in which government regulators can seize giant failing financial institutions and sell them off in pieces, leaving shareholders to take the losses and at least in theory ending the notion that an institution is too big to fail.

It also imposes regulations on derivatives, creates a council to oversee risk to the financial system, and creates a financial consumer protection bureau under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. The Securities and Exchange Commission would also be given more authority to regulate hedge funds and private equity firms.

Critics of the bill, primarily Republicans, have said it wouldn’t achieve the end of the too big to fail phenomenon that forced bailouts of big banks by the government in 2008 and 2009. And, they have said, the regulations will needlessly increase the heavy hand of government on the financial system, stifling innovation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote to end debate for Thursday morning.