Last night, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)gave the final Wall Street reform bill the thumbs up. In May, Cantwell was one of two Democrats to oppose the Senate-passed bill from the left, and had been mostly silent about the legislation for weeks. But by announcing her intent to vote for the financial reform conference report, Cantwell all but assures the legislation will pass.
“I will vote in support of the conference report because it makes great strides toward our ultimate goal: bringing all standard derivatives onto exchanges and clearinghouses, with aggregate position limits and strong anti-manipulation tools,” Cantwell said in an official statement. “…This legislation is not perfect, and I will continue to push for even bolder action – including a return to the Glass-Steagall separation of commercial and investment banking – to reign in Wall Street, put an end to the concept of ‘too-big-to-fail.’ But this bill makes significant strides toward preventing the kind of financial meltdown that we saw in the fall of 2008.”
Her vote gives Democratic leaders a bit of breathing room, and added confidence that their reform package will overcome a filibuster and pass in the Senate after the fourth of July recess. Cantwell represents the 57th Democratic vote for the legislation. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) remains opposed, and the death of Robert Byrd cost Dems yet another vote. But Byrd’s seat will likely be filled by another Democrat when Congress returns. And between 58 Democratic votes and the support of Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, the bill will clear the supermajority threshold, with or without the assent of continually wavering Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA).
The House of Representatives passed an identical set of reforms on Wednesday.
