An apparent agreement between House and Senate conferees on a rewrite of federal financial regulations itself underwent an emergency revision on June 29 as the lead Senate negotiator, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), won approval for an amendment he hopes will get the bill through the chamber. Construction officials theorized that if the measure becomes law, its new regulatory mandates and costs could prompt banks to make already-tight credit even more dear.
Dodd saw that objections to a $19-billion “assessment” on banks and hedge funds was likely to doom chances of the Senate’s passing the bill, upon which conferees on June 25 agreed. Dodd’s new plan substitutes the bank/hedge-fund charge for a Troubled Asset Relief Program cut and a boost in the fee banks pay to the federal deposit insurance fund.