Is Senate leadership worried about Sen. Byron Dorgan’s filibuster threat tanking financial reform? “You bet,” Sen. Dick Durbin told me today at a briefing with reporters.
“We need 60 votes. I’m going to make sure we get every Democrat on the bill,” Durbin (D-IL) said when I asked him about Dorgan’s concerns.
Durbin said he doesn’t know if Dorgan (D-ND) has reached an agreement with Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and both of those Senate offices have been tight-lipped today as Senate moves toward final passage of the bill. During the briefing, Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) discussed an amendment likely to get a vote in the next few days allowing individual state regulation of credit card companies.
Durbin said he thinks the Senate will pass financial reform by the end of the week, with Republican votes as well.
“The earlier the better,” he said.
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