US President Barack Obama has claimed victory as the Senate voted to end debate on a massive Wall Street overhaul package, which is said to be the most sweeping reform of the country’s financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.
Barney Frank, head of a key House panel, told CNBC it was important to complete reform soon to ease uncertainty. He said Mr Obama could sign a bill into law well before July 4.
Mr Frank, the Democratic author of Wall Street reform in the House, on Thursday drew an early negotiating line ahead of impending talks with the Senate on a final package.
In letters to senior Senate Democrats, Mr Frank said certain House proposals on financial firm regulation and bank trading limits must be preserved.
He said the House proposals were important to his home state of Massachusetts and that “none of them threaten or weaken the broad objectives of comprehensive reform ... I will insist that they be maintained in the final bill.”
The letters were addressed to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd, the Democratic author of the Senate bill. Both will likely be key players, along with Mr Frank, in the House-Senate talks.
Last-minute manoeuvring on the Senate floor killed two controversial amendments: one to tighten proposed restrictions on risky trading by banks, and another exempting car dealers that do not finance their own lending to auto buyers from oversight by a new federal consumer watchdog.
Republicans withdrew the auto-dealer amendment, so that the bank trading amendment, offered by Democrats Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin, would not come to a vote.
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Shahzad number on detained Pak national’s phone
New York, May 21: A Pakistani national arrested in connection with the botched Times Square car bombing had prime suspect Faisal Shahzad’s phone number on his cell phone and an envelop with the accused name on it in his apartment.
Aftab Ali Khan, 27, is one of the three men arrested last week for violating immigrations laws and are suspected of funding money to Shahzad to facilitate his failed plot to blow up an explosive laden car in Times Square on May 1.
FOX News Channel reported that during hearing on Thursday, federal immigration attorney Richard Neville revealed these findings against Aftab but Khan’s lawyer denied his client had any connection with Shahzad.
30-year-old Pakistani-American Shahzad was apprehended at John F. Kennedy airport. —PTI