Republican's Block Financial Bill

By Alison Vekshin and Phil Mattingly

U.S. Senate Democrats failed to move toward a final vote on the financial-regulation bill amid resistance from both parties on parts of the sweeping overhaul of Wall Street oversight.

Two Democratic senators who said the bill wasn’t strong enough — Maria Cantwell of Washington and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin — joined Republicans yesterday in defeating a procedural measure that fell three votes short of the 60 needed to wind down debate. The collapse of a compromise on derivatives language, one of the remaining contentious issues, was another setback for Democrats, who said the stumbles didn’t dim the chances for final approval.

Democrats said they would try a second procedural vote today at 2:30 p.m. Washington time.

Continue reading Senate Democrats Fail to Win Support to Advance Financial Bill