Financial Reform

Sr. White House Official: GOP Consumer Bureau Demands 'Unacceptable'

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 6:12PM

President Barack Obama

The White House making a big public push to pressure moderate Republicans to support Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, when the Senate votes on his confirmation Thursday. Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to filibuster any potential director until Democrats agree to dramatically scale back the bureau's regulatory power.

In a background briefing with reporters Monday, a senior White House official said the GOP's demands won't fly.

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Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart: Barney Frank Is The 'Everything Bagel' Of Things Conservatives Hate

David Taintor | November 30, 2011, 9:45AM

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart isn't sure why conservative pundits are celebrating Rep. Barney Frank's retirement from Congress after a long career as a top Democratic player in the House of Representatives.

Congressional redistricting in Massachusetts, which could have made for tough fights down the road, motivated Frank to end his Congressional career.

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Medicare

Obama Sides With Panetta On Need To Cut Medicare Over Defense

Brian Beutler | August 8, 2011, 3:32PM

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

Last week, Congressional Democrats were blindsided by newly-confirmed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who basically nixed any further cuts to military spending, and demanded that lawmakers trim from programs like Medicare and raise taxes to reduce future deficits.

Soon a new deficit Super Committee will begin debating tax and entitlement reform, and the penalty if they gridlock includes steep defense cuts. Republicans are expected to seize on Panetta's remarks to push for another deficit deal that comes exclusively from entitlement cuts. So Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) called on President Obama to repudiate Panetta.

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Leon Panetta

Dems Take On Panetta For Pushing Medicare, Social Security Cuts Over Defense Cuts

Brian Beutler | August 5, 2011, 4:11PM

Leon Panetta

A fight is brewing on the right, between anti-tax zealots and big military types over who takes the next hit in the continuing fight over deficits. The prospect excites progressives, who see a rare opportunity to force the GOP to slaughter one of their sacred cows, and rip the party apart in the process.

But the left is poised for a similar internal battle.

The tensions on both sides of the aisle were set in motion by the debt deal, which created a powerful, bipartisan deficit committee tasked with finding over $1 trillion in savings over the next 10 years. If it gridlocks, though, it will trigger automatic spending cuts, including about half a billion dollars from defense.

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Debt Ceiling

Pelosi Outlines Revenue-Free Path Forward On Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2011, 2:28PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Friday that Democrats may reluctantly accept a last-minute compromise to avoid a default that involves up to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts -- without agreed-upon new tax revenues -- if Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are protected from the debt limit brinksmanship.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Debt Ceiling Negotiations At The White House]

The plan would place a firewall between entitlement spending and the threat of default, upsetting GOP plans to force deep, immediate cuts to those programs. And if, as a result, the GOP declined the offer, Democrats would agree to punt the questions of entitlement spending and tax revenues to a future, streamlined legislative process.

The potential endgame, Pelosi said, would meet an arbitrary GOP requirement that Congress must only grant President Obama as much new borrowing authority as he's willing to accept in spending cuts, and leave for a later date a twinned fight over revenues and social insurance programs.

"We're willing to bite the bullet and make serious cuts in discretionary spending," Pelosi told a small group of reporters and bloggers. "That could go to a trillion dollars or more. And the interest saved on that can take us to like a trillion and a half dollars saved."

We could go even further with non-health mandatories, could take us almost to two trillion. We could use the offshore -- the Overseas Contingency [the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan] -- could take us to two-and-a-half trillion dollars. Which is the dollar-for-dollar for the lifting the debt ceiling. I don't think we have to have dollar-for-dollar, but for those who think they do, there's a path to get there.

That's not a great deal for Democrats, she noted, but it protects key programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. "[T]hat's a non-revenue path. I don't like it at all but it doesn't go near our entitlements," Pelosi said.

There's one big problem: "I don't think the Republicans are going to accept that. So whatever they would want to accept over-and-above that would have to be something, I think, down the road. And that would be treating entitlements and revenue."

This framework is compatible with a plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have written, and will deploy if President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) can't reach a consensus on an even farther-reaching package. But they have precious little time. "The moment of truth is now, Harry Reid says he needs eight days to take anything to the floor," she said.

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14th Amendment

Pelosi On Obama Ignoring The Debt Limit: Ain't Gonna Happen

Brian Beutler | July 8, 2011, 2:27PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dumped the last shovel-full of dirt on the idea that President Obama can ignore the national borrowing limit if Congress refuses to raise it.

At her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, she gave reporters a glimpse into a Thursday meeting at the White House with Democratic and Republican leaders, which, she said, became dominated by the question of the Constitutionality of the debt ceiling.

"At our meeting they spent a whole lot of time talking about the 14th Amendment. I said, 'you know what? Why are we talking about something that's not going to happen.'"

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Mitt Romney

Barney Frank: 'The 'Only Consistent Principle Of Mitt Romney' Is Political Ambition (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 15, 2011, 6:32PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) says he's found the one thing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) doesn't flip-flop on: grabbing power by any means necessary.

"I cannot think of a public policy" Romney hasn't changed positions on, Frank said in a blistering interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "The only consistent principle of Mitt Romney is he thinks he should run the world."

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Barack Obama

Frank: White House Should Use Recess Appointment To Overcome Sexist Opposition To Warren

Ryan J. Reilly | June 2, 2011, 3:35PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren

The White House will use President Barack Obama's recess appointment powers to name Prof. Elizabeth Warren head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if that is their only option, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said Thursday.

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Barney Frank

Barney Frank: Yes, I Once Helped My Domestic Partner Find Work At Fannie Mae

Benjy Sarlin | May 26, 2011, 4:57PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) confirmed on Thursday that he helped his former domestic partner secure a job at Fannie Mae, an institution that Frank was entrusted with overseeing as a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

The story was first reported in a new book on the 2008 financial crisis by reporter Gretchen Morgensen, Reckless Endangerment. According to Morgensen, Frank talked up then-partner Herb Moses' qualifications to Fannie Mae executives in 1991 to help him score a job with the mortgage giant. Frank later took Fannie Mae's side against claims it had grown dangerously large repeatedly during his time on the committee, which he eventually took over as chairman in 2007.

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Israel

Andrews Stands By Remark That Obama 'Tilting Towards Hamas'

Susan Crabtree | May 25, 2011, 5:23PM

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ).

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) is sticking to his statement made Tuesday that President Obama is "tilting towards Hamas" -- and went further on Wednesday complaining that the President's comments last week about the starting point for peace negotiations, and the subsequent uproar, has bolstered the Palestinians' standing.

Andrews said Obama had given Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party has entered into a unity agreement with their rivals Hamas, an excuse to insist on preconditions before sitting down at the negotiating table with Israel. He was referring to comments Obama made during a major speech last week that the borders of Israel and a future Palestinian state should be based on 1967 lines with agreed upon swaps.

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Gay Rights

DOMA Fight Seen As Turning Point in Politics of Gay Rights

Benjy Sarlin | March 17, 2011, 10:27AM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

In what is perhaps a watershed moment in the long fight for gay rights, the current battle over the Defense of Marriage Act is being waged with at least tacit acknowledgment from all sides that it is a political winner for pro-gay-rights Democrats.

In the wake of President Obama's decision to drop support for portions of the Defense of Marriage Act, gay rights advocates have been unabashed in claiming that beyond the merits of their underlying argument they now have the political advantage as well. Not only does public opinion polling suggest they're right, but the reaction of gay rights opponents does, too.

On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats held separate press conferences announcing the introduction of legislation to repeal DOMA. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the sponsors of the House bill, was asked whether Democrats were politicizing gay rights as a wedge issue against the GOP, as Majority Leader Eric Cantor alleged last month.

"What do I say to the idea that this is a wedge issue? I say 'Hallelujah,'" Frank told reporters. "The fact that we've now evolved to the point where the Republicans are complaining about the fact that we introduced this bill because it causes them political problems is a great sign of progress. It used to be the other way around."

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Barney Frank

Barney Frank: White House Move On DOMA Is A Political Winner

Benjy Sarlin | February 23, 2011, 1:40PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) couldn't be more excited to see the White House come around on the Defense of Marriage Act, which he said was the right move legally and politically.

"It's great news," Frank, who is openly gay, told TPM over the phone. "Particularly after DADT repeal, this is a further expression of his commitment to doing away with discrimination."

The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it would no longer defend parts of DOMA that restrict the federal government from recognizing gay marriages in states where such unions are legal.

Frank said he recommended to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley in a meeting last week that the Administration drop its support for DOMA.

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Spending

Frank Mocks GOP 'Orgy Of Self-Congratulation' (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | February 18, 2011, 11:38AM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

House Republicans are on the cusp of passing legislation that would slash federal spending dramatically over the next six months, and they've larded it up with extraneous riders, which would undermine many of President Obama's accomplishments.

That sounds terrible, but on the bright side it gave Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) a chance to unload on the GOP's "orgy of self-congratulation."

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Barney Frank

Barney Frank: NATO 'Serves No Strategic Purpose'

Eric Lach | December 28, 2010, 12:37PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Amid all the talk about spending cuts for unemployment benefits, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has a counter proposal: cut NATO spending. The congressman told The Huffington Post that defense spending needs to be included in the discussion about spending cuts, and argued that the liberal community should focus specifically on NATO spending as an issue. The Democrat went so far as to question NATO's value.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Prevails Over Uneasy Democratic Caucus

Brian Beutler | November 17, 2010, 6:19PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

For hours Wednesday morning and afternoon, while House Republicans went through an almost perfunctory exercise of electing the next Speaker of the House, Democrats vented steam over the results of the November 2nd election. Dozens rebelled against the existing leadership team. Others simply were too shell-shocked to give Nancy Pelosi a vote of confidence so soon after their party lost over 60 seats.

When all was said and done, the leadership team will be the same as last last year's. Pelosi won her race against Blue Dog Heath Shuler (NC) -- a mostly symbolic opponent -- handily, and everybody else took one step down behind her. Steny Hoyer (MD) will become the minority whip. Jim Clyburn (SC) will settle into a new, and ill-defined role as assistant minority leader, and John Larson (CT) and Xavier Becerra (CA) will retain their roles as conference chair and vice-chair.

Getting there was a saga Democrats are eagerly working to put behind them.

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Steny Hoyer

House Chairmen, Key Pelosi Allies Back Hoyer In Whip Race

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2010, 9:29AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

A number of influential House chairmen, including key allies of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have signed a letter this morning endorsing Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in his race against Democratic Whip James Clyburn to be the new minority whip next Congress.

"Leader Hoyer is ready to hit the ground running as Democratic Whip," the chairmen write. "He is one of our party's most effective messengers, with the ability to challenge Republicans on the Floor, build support for our party's middle-class policies across America, and fight back against the special-interest money that played such an important role for Republicans in this election."

Like us, Congressman Hoyer
understands that Americans do not support the Republican agenda of repealing health care reform, loosening rules that protect consumers and our environment, privatizing Social Security, and funding tax cuts for the wealthy with billions of dollars in new debt.

Steny Hoyer is a tested leader who can help Democrats rise to the challenge of the next Congress, protect the interests of the middle class, and win back the majority. For those reasons, we support Steny Hoyer as our next Democratic Whip, and we hope that you will do the same.

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Sean Bielat

Barney Frank's Opponent Compares Gay People To Short People

Brian Beutler | October 25, 2010, 9:37AM

Barney Frank's Republican House challenger Sean Bielat argued this weekend that gay people should be as accepting of the fact that they can't serve in the military -- since people under 5'2" tall are also prohibited.

"There's no absolute right to serve. Men under the height of 5 feet, 2 inches can't serve -- I don't see anybody protesting," Bielat said, according to the Boston Herald. "Where are the people standing in front of the White House, the short guys standing in front of the White House? You don't see it."

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Barney Frank

Bielat Campaign Produces Attack Ad Of Barney Frank As Hip-Swerving Disco Queen (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 22, 2010, 12:01PM

This isn't running on TV, at least not yet. But the below web video, produced by the Sean Bielat (R) campaign is making the rounds anyhow.

You'll see why when you watch it. Bielat's running against Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Frank chairs the House Financial Services committee and is the most famous openly gay member of Congress. Bielat combines those two themes in the video to lay the responsibility for the financial crisis at Frank's feet... while portraying him as a hip-swerving disco queen in a rumpled suit.

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Barney Frank

Barney Frank's Partner And Opponent Joust After Thursday Debate (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 18, 2010, 2:25PM

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)

An unusual back and forth between a photographer and a House candidate Thursday culminated in the following exchange.

"It's a free country isn't it?" the cameraman asked.

"It sure is," replied Sean Bielat, who's running against Rep. Barney Frank (D) in Massachusetts' 4th Congressional district. "At least if we can get the Congress back."

"Quit the jokes, dude, you're no[t] funny at all," the photographer responded.

The cameraman in question? James Ready, perhaps better known as Frank's partner. And the whole exchange was caught on camera.

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MA-04

Barney Frank To Face 'Nazi Policy' Town Hall Questioner In Next Week's Dem Primary

Eric Kleefeld | September 7, 2010, 12:09PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

This should be fun. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has a very well-known opponent in next week's Democratic primary, who he's faced before under different circumstances: Rachel Brown, the LaRouche activist who confronted him in a famous town hall exchange in August 2009.

Brown was the one who got up and asked Frank why he was supporting Obama's "Nazi policy" on health care, while she and her compatriots were also name-dropping LaRouche and bearing a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache. Frank -- who being both gay and a Jew, is a member of at least two groups that the Nazis sent to the death camps -- shot back: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He also added: "My answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated."

Next week, she'll be facing Frank on the Democratic primary ballot. "I didn't realize at the time that if you had a better idea, you should take their seat," Brown told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the 30-year incumbent Frank is taking a particularly dismissive view of his latest challenger. "I regard her as an example of the price you pay for free speech," Frank said. "I don't think she is very rational."

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Financial Reform

Frank: Abolish Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac

Brian Beutler | August 17, 2010, 8:47PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is calling for the abolition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises with a public mandate to boost home ownership, and which were taken into conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis.

In an appearance on Fox Business Network tonight, Frank said they should be replaced with new programs to support affordable rental housing.

"I think they should be abolished," Frank said. "The only question is what do you put in their place. This is a situation where given the importance they had come to play in housing, you can't tear down the old jail until you build a new one. And that's a process that we've started."

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Barney Frank

Frank, Paul Plan To Reduce The Deficit Through Military Spending Cuts

Brian Beutler | August 17, 2010, 2:53PM

Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX)

Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) are enlisting members of Congress to press President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to propose "significant cuts to the military budget."

Frank and Paul are seeking signatories to a letter to the fiscal commission, highlighting one trillion dollars in savings they can be achieved, through cuts and efficiencies, in the next 10 years.

"[W]e write to urge in the strongest terms that any final Commission report include among its recommendations substantial reductions in projected levels of future spending by the Department of Defense," the letter reads.

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Financial Reform

Barney Frank Presses Obama To Appoint Elizabeth Warren To Head Consumer Bureau (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | July 23, 2010, 12:12PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

The Democrats' top point man on Wall Street reform is pressing President Obama -- hard -- to appoint Elizabeth Warren to head the newly-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In an appearance on MSNBC, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank threw his full support to Warren and warned Obama that, unlike other disappointments, he'd be held directly accountable if the nomination goes to somebody else.

"It is essential to the bill and very, very important that Elizabeth Warren be appointed [to head the consumer financial protection bureau]," Frank said.

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Wall Street

Could The Wall Street Reform Bill Make The U.S. More Susceptible To Financial Collapse?

Brian Beutler | July 6, 2010, 1:59PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) , Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

President Obama might be on the verge of signing a Wall Street reform bill that makes the U.S. economy more vulnerable to a major financial crisis. At least, that's the view of some experts, both in the Obama administration, on the Hill, and outside, who believe that, amid the anti-bailout fervor consuming the country, Congress and the Treasury Department became too eager to eliminate all future bailouts, and robbed the government of the legal authority they might need in the future to save the economy.

"In general, this is a symptom of the panic that Congress has developed about being seen to allow any form of future bailout," says Doug Elliott, a financial expert at the Brookings Institution, "I say 'panic' because it has prompted a number of limitations that we may come to sharply regret in a few decades when we hit the next truly severe financial crisis."

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Financial Reform

One Down, One To Go: House Passes Historic Wall Street Reform Bill

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 7:00PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and House Democratic Leadership.

By a vote of 237-192, the House of Representatives this afternoon voted to pass final legislation dramatically changing the rules that govern the financial industry. Nineteen Democrats joined 173 Republicans in opposing the legislation, which, in addition to limiting the risky practices that lead to the 2008 collapse, will create a new federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers from predatory financial products, and bring to a close the Troubled Asset Relief Plan -- the bailout program created by the Congress in the midst of the financial crisis. Three Republicans voted for the bill, and four members (two Democrats, two Republicans) did not vote.

The Senate is set to take up identical legislation shortly after they return from next week's Independence Day recess. Democrats had hoped to send the Wall Street reform bill to President Obama by weeks end, but last minute hiccups in the Senate -- objections of key Republicans and the death of Robert Byrd -- ultimately made that impossible.

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Scott Brown

Brown Still Undecided On Wall Street Bill

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 10:39AM

Senators Scott Brown (R-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

After all of yesterday's high drama, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) continues to drag his feet on Wall Street reform legislation.

After Democrats took the extraordinary step of reconvening the financial reform conference committee to make changes he and other moderate Republicans demanded to the bill, Brown's now saying he won't announce his final vote until after the Independence Day recess next week.

"I appreciate the conference committee revisiting the Wall Street reform bill and removing the $19 billion bank tax," Brown says in a new statement this morning. "Over the July recess, I will continue to review this important bill. I remain committed to putting in place safeguards to prevent another financial meltdown, ensure that consumers are protected, and that this bill is paid for without new taxes."

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Financial Reform

Dems and Republicans Clash Over Wall Street Reform Fix

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 5:51PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Late update: Financial reform negotiators agreed tonight on a party line vote to make fixes sought by Sens. Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, changing the way the legislation will be paid for. Speaking to reporters after the impromptu conference committee session, House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank implied strongly that he'd received assurances that the Senate now has 60 votes to pass Wall Street reform. The House will likely take the bill up tomorrow, while the Senate may have to wait until after the July 4 recess to hold its final vote.

Here's how Democrats propose to placate moderate Republicans, who've been threatening to renege on their previous support for Wall Street reform. Instead of paying for the $19 billion cost of financial regulation bill by taxing big banks, the legislation will now raise money in two ways: Ending TARP, and raising the minimum target for FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund.

Democrats took the extraordinary step this evening of reconvening the financial reform conference committee and making the switch in order to secure 60 votes for the legislation in the Senate. Brown said he'd bolt from the bill without a new pay-for, and Maine Republicans Collins and Snowe made similar threats, leaving Democrats likely vulnerable to a Republican financial reform filibuster.

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Financial Reform

Could Congress Change The Wall Street Bill Again?

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 1:11PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

With the Wall Street reform legislation agreed to by House and Senate negotiators now in serious doubt in the Senate, what happens if the final bill can't muster the votes? At his weekly press availability this morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer hinted that they may have to make some changes.

"We're trying to work with the Senate to ensure that we both take up a version that does in fact have 60 votes," Hoyer said.

But the conference report, passed late last week, can not be amended on the House or Senate floors. It's an up-or-down, yes-or-no proposition. If they need a new 'version' that has 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, they'd have to reconvene the conference committee, strip the language that offends Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and try again.

Hoyer declined a followup question this morning. Neither his office, nor the office of conference committee chairman Barney Frank were immediately available for comment. But keep an eye on this as an increasingly likely option for Democrats, as they try to save the financial reform bill.

Financial Reform

Obama Administration Sided With Scott Brown On Wall Street Bill Loophole

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2010, 4:46PM

President Obama and State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

As the final Wall Street negotiations came to a close last week, the Obama administration quietly sided with Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) against most Democrats in support of a loophole in one of the key provisions of the financial reform bill.

Several Democratic Hill aides tell TPMDC that the Treasury Department, which wielded tremendous influence over the shape of the legislation, changed its position on the Volcker rule during the final deliberations, endorsing an exemption that will allow banks to invest in outside hedge funds.

"Treasury's official position went from opposed to [the loophole] to supportive," one aide says. "They may have [even] overshot Brown's desires by a bit."

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Financial Reform

Senators Say Lincoln Victory Saves Tough Derivatives Regs

Brian Beutler | June 10, 2010, 9:49AM

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

A number of key senators returned to the Capitol after election Tuesday with good news for Wall Street foes. By defeating her primary challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has strengthened her hand in the final financial reform negotiations, and has given new life to a much-debated provision, which would require financial firms to spin off their derivatives trading desks. But the measure still faces broad and stiff opposition from powerful interest groups and the Obama administration, and there's little if any evidence that Lincoln's victory weakened their resolve to, at the very least, scale it back.

"She returns as the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, running for re-election in November, which I think gives her a strong bargaining position," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told reporters yesterday.

The reasoning is simple: Facing a tough re-election challenge in November, Democrats will be loath to publicly undercut her, particularly given how great a role her contributions to Wall Street reform played in the Arkansas primary.

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Financial Reform

GOPers Call Dems' Bluff On Wall Street Reform Transparency

Brian Beutler | May 27, 2010, 6:22PM

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Senate Republicans are calling Democrats' bluff on the promise of transparent Wall Street reform negotiations. In a letter delivered tonight to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)--the financial reform point men in the House and Senate--the GOP's top negotiators demand that the conference committee process be opened further than Frank is willing to allow.

"The conference's work is too important for it to be bound by artificial deadlines," the letter reads. "The only reason for rushing the conference would be to hide from the American people poorly conceived legislation or legislation designed to help a particular special interest. Accordingly, members should have ample time to consider and offer amendments to any proposal before it is voted on by the conference. All members also should have an opportunity to be heard on every issue the conference considers."

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Financial Reform

Nothing To See Here! Wall Street Reform Negotiators Say No To Full Transparency

Brian Beutler | May 27, 2010, 12:12PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank punctured a growing call for greater transparency in the final Wall Street reform negotiations today, saying there will be no time to air any proposed changes to the legislation in public before they're adopted.

"No, you won't have time to do that, because...we have a fairly short time period," Frank told me this morning.

Whether time was the issue or not, other leading congressional negotiators didn't appear to have much of an appetite for operating in as open an environment as possible.

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Financial Reform

Progressives Demand: No Behind-Closed-Doors Deals On Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2010, 2:48PM

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)

So often on Capitol Hill, legislators spend weeks or months creating bills under a fair amount of public scrutiny, only to cut a deal behind closed doors in the final hours and push it through both the House and the Senate before reporters and experts have had a chance to examine it. The Wall Street reform bill is supposed to be different: it will be completed in a formal House-Senate conference, in front of cameras and with all votes recorded, thanks to conference chairman Barney Frank. But aides on the hill and outside progressive groups both say there's still too much room for funny business and are pressing Congress to make the end-stage negotiations even more transparent.

"The key thing we want is we want the legislation put online, the differences put online, the issues they're going to talk about put online," says Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. "We don't want them to make decisions--to take stuff off the table--without doing it in public."

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Financial Reform

Awkward! Will The Dems Scrap Tough Derivatives Reform With The Cameras Rolling?

Brian Beutler | May 24, 2010, 10:08AM

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)

As the House and Senate begin the task of ironing out differences between their financial reform bills, Democrats are faced with a problem. Can they scale back a tough provision of their own -- a measure in the Senate bill to force financial companies to break off their derivative swaps desks into separate entities -- while the cameras are rolling?

Theoretically, there's enough support among Democrats -- including Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Mark Warner (D-VA), who's expected to be named to the panel -- and Republicans to remove or replace tough derivatives reform. The question is whether they have the courage to do so in front of television cameras.

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Financial Reform

Will Wall Street Reform Negotiators Publicly Weaken Derivative-Trading Regulations? (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | May 21, 2010, 3:26PM

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)

They are doing it live--at least according to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

After a White House meeting with President Obama, and his Senate counterpart Chris Dodd today, Frank told reporters that no changes will be made to Wall Street reform legislation during final negotiations behind closed doors.

"We will have a conference, I think, that will work well. It will be conducted, the formal parts, in public," Frank said. "That means that no agreements reached, no compromises, which obviously are being discussed, will be made part of anything without being publicly presented and voted on and discussed."

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Financial Reform

We're Doin' It Live! Republicans Give Thumbs Up To Televised Wall Street Reform Negotiations

Brian Beutler | May 21, 2010, 10:37AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Should the final act of the financial reform fight be televised? If it is, it would make any efforts--whether Republican or Democrat-led--to weaken the final product a heavier lift. And so there will be significant pressure to cut the final deal in as much darkness as possible. But if that's the route legislators decide to go they'll have to walk back from earlier nods toward the importance of transparency

Several weeks ago, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank dared Senate Republicans to oppose Wall Street reform, and warned that, after the Senate passed its legislation, any further efforts to weaken the final product would have to be public: a formal conference committee to iron out the differences between the House and Senate bills, even a C-SPAN camera so the whole world could see where each party stood.

Well, last night, the Senate passed its bill, and on Monday the Senate will take formal steps to begin the conference committee process. And in conversation, key Republicans and Democrats last night say they think inviting the cameras along would be just fine.

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Financial Reform

Don't Forget About Us: House To Get Another Stab At Financial Reform

Brian Beutler | April 23, 2010, 12:21PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) , Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

With all the focus on financial reform's contentious path through the Senate, it's easy to forget that the House passed its own version of financial reform way back in December, while the Senate was still shuffling its way through health care reform. So if and when the Senate passes financial reform, it will have to be reconciled with the House version before President Obama can sign the reforms into law. With a vote possible in the Senate as early as next week, it's not too early to look ahead to the terrain in the House.

The bill that came out of Rep. Barney Frank's committee passed the full House on December 11, on a strictly party line vote, garnering 223 votes, and that was with seven Democrats not present, most, if not all, of whom, would have voted "yes." House Democrats continue to be supportive of financial reform generally: no buyer's remorse and no changes in the political environment to make the issue less attractive to them politically that it was at the end of last year. But they are keeping an eye on what specifically emerges from the Senate.

The devil will be in the details, of course. As it stands the differences between the bill the House passed in December and the Senate bill, authored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, aren't terribly different, and the discrepancies could likely be ironed out with little muss or fuss. But if the Dodd bill changes dramatically in the days ahead that could change.

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Financial Reform

Next Up: Financial Reform -- And Dems Think The GOP Is On Board

Christina Bellantoni | April 9, 2010, 9:48AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), President Barack Obama, and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

The Obama administration is aiming for spring passage of financial regulatory reform legislation, and despite the partisan nature of the last big domestic policy push of health care reform, officials believe they will be able to attract Republicans.

Treasury Department officials and Congressional Democrats putting the finishing touches on legislation the Senate will consider in the coming weeks stressed in briefings and interviews that Republican ideas are peppered throughout the legislation and should attract wide support.

Neal Wolin, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, told reporters in a briefing at the White House this week that outside groups are focusing too much on the differences between the Senate proposal and what passed the House last year, and on any split between the Republicans and Democrats. He said the administration is looking that the wide areas where there is strong agreement, and stressed that Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) included many Republican ideas in the bill by working with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). (Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has said financial reform is an issue "every American" wants to see passed.)

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Financial Reform

Frank On GOP Opposition To Wall Street Reform: Bring It On (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | April 1, 2010, 11:04AM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Congressional Democrats are counting on the potent politics of regulating Wall Street to force a handful of Senate Republicans to break a filibuster on a significant reform bill. And to remind those Republicans just how charged the issue of regulatory reform is, Dems--particularly in the House--are practically daring Republicans in the upper chamber to filibuster the bill.

"This is a bring-it-on moment," said House Financial Services Chairman on MSNBC last night.

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