The death yesterday of West Virginia Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, and Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold’s refusal to back the final package, underscored the need for some Republican support to obtain 60 votes necessary to proceed to final Senate action on the financial-regulatory bill approved June 25 by a House-Senate committee.
Byrd’s absence and possible opposition from Brown, who voted for an earlier Senate version of the legislation, means Democratic leaders may come up short if they try to bring the measure to the floor before July 4, as they had planned.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, told Bloomberg Television yesterday that consideration of the bill may be postponed until West Virginia’s Democratic Governor Joe Manchin appoints a successor to Byrd, possibly not until after the funeral.
Possible Delay
“The hope was that the Senate would vote this week, and now you have lost a vote,” Leahy said. “I am not sure what will happen. It is possible they put this off until after a replacement has been appointed by the governor.”
Leahy said he expects the bill “will eventually pass.”
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Byrd's Death, Republican Fee Concerns Complicate Finance Bill
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment