Fate of Bipartisan Reform Legislation Hangs on Freshman Senator from Tennessee

With talks between Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D-Conn) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala) having reached an impasse, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) has agreed to work with Chairman Dodd to see if a bipartisan approach to a financial regulatory reform bill in the Senate is possible. Senator Corker, who is the Ranking Member on the Securities Subcommittee, said that this is a piece of legislation that needs to be passed.

Senator Corker has been working for months with Senator Mark Warner (D-Va) on the systemic risk and resolution authority provisions of the bill and they have also held over a dozen briefings on financial issues for all senators. They are crafting a resolution regime that ends the idea of ‘too big to fail’ and says instead that when an entity fails, it fails. There will be no more taxpayer bailouts of failing financial firms.

Senator Corker has outlined the strategy that he and Senator Dodd will employ to achieve a bi-partisan bill. First, they will set aside the hot button issue of consumer financial protection and begin working to find consensus on derivatives regulation, resolution authority and other pieces of the bill. He said that the final legislation must enhance consumer financial protection without negatively impacting the safety and soundness of the financial system. He also said that he will not support a separate standalone agency for consumer financial protection.

In his view, the longer there is uncertainty in the financial community about what comes next, the longer it will take to remove one of the impediments to restarting growth in the economy. The private sector, the engine for job creation, should not have to calculate Washington rhetoric into their business decisions.

.