Dodd: No deal yet on Wall St. bill, though some issues resolved

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect to
win the votes to move forward with his Wall Street reform bill.

But Dodd said also that he has reached some areas of agreement with his Republican counterpart on the Senate Banking Committee, raising the prospect of breaking the current impasse in the Senate soon.

“Well, I’m told it won’t be,” Dodd said during an appearance on the liberal “Bill Press Show” when asked if Democrats would get enough votes to proceed with debate on the financial reform bill.

While Dodd said there’s a possibility some Republicans could break ranks, observers can most likely expect a replay of the last two days, when the Senate voted 57-41 to begin debate on Wall Street reform, three votes shy of the 60 necessary to begin.

But amid some signs that talks may be deteriorating between Democrats and Republicans, Dodd, the chairman of the Banking Committee, said that he and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the committee, had reached some areas of agreement, which they hope to present soon to colleagues.

“Richard Shelby and I have a good relationship,” Dodd said. “And we have been able to resolve some issues, I believe, and we’ll present those to our colleagues.”

But Dodd said that negotiations made the case for allowing the bill to come to the floor, reasoning that it would be arrogant for him and Shelby to dictate the terms of an agreement to colleagues, and arguing that floor debate is the long-held practice of the Senate.

To that end, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of the key centrist Republicans who’s seen as a possible supporter of the banking bill, said she had seen progress being made, and that she believed the bill would be able to come to the floor soon.

“There is good progress being made,” Collins said during an appearance on NBC. “I am confident that a financial reform bill will be brought to the floor and passed.”

Collins did say, though, that she intends to vote against beginning debate Wednesday when the Senate votes again at approximately 12:15 p.m.