Politics

Dodd Move Blocks Progressive Reforms

By Mary Bottari

With over 400 amendments readied for the committee debate on Senator Chris Dodd?s financial reform package, Banking Chairman Dodd decided to ditch the democratic process and vote his own version of the bill out of committee. This moves the real debate to the Senate floor and worsens progressive?s chance of improving the bill.

On Friday, Senators had readied their amendments, which included dozens of Republican amendments that were clearly intended to draw out the debate and delay final action. After tweaking the bill over the weekend, Dodd moved for an up or down vote on his draft in committee. It passed on a strict party line vote of 13-10. After a year of discussion, the committee ?debate? and mark up took only 21 minutes.

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Full post as published by PR Watch on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).