WASHINGTON BUREAU — New England apparently has given Senate Democrats the Republican votes they need to get H.R. 4173, the financial services bill, to the floor.
Senate Democrats say they believe they now have the support they need to secure passage of H.R. 4173, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act bill, in the Senate.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said at 8:22 p.m. today that Democratic Senate leaders have learned that Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will support the bill.
In the Senate, supporters of a bill need 60 votes to prevent opponents from using a filibuster, or endless round of debate, to keep the bill from coming up for a vote. The death of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and the decision of Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., to oppose the bill, forced H.R. 4173 backers to scramble to win over enough Republicans to get the bill through the Senate.
