Labor & Employment Law

House/Senate Conference OKs Wall Street Reform Bill, Full Votes Next Week

By Mike Hall

After an all-night session, U.S. House and Senate negotiators this morning agreed on a Wall Street reform bill that imposes tough new rules on the way Wall Street and Big Banks do business, including how they handle derivatives. Derivatives are the complex and risky financial products developed by Wall Street and Big Banks that were at the heart of the financial collapse.

The Senate passed its version last month and the House in December. The conference report melds the two bills and is expected to come to votes in both chambers next week. Wall Street lobbyists spent the past several months spending millions?much of it taxpayer bailout money?to weaken the legislation.

But working families also rallied to demand new rules to rein-in Wall Street?s risky practices that devastated the economy and left working families on Main Street footing the bailout bill.

In April, more than 15,000 people marched on Wall Street and last month thousands more marched on K Street in Washington, D.C., demanding Wall Street reform. As Daniel Pedrotty, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, says:

This is a David and Goliath victory of working people against the big banks and Wall Street. While it’s not perfect, this legislation is a giant step to changing the rules of the game that caused the economic crisis.

Along with the new rules on derivatives, the bill regulates banks? hedge fund operations, gives shareholders more of a say on corporate governance, makes Wall Street pay to implement the new rules with a $20 billion levy and creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rein in subprime mortgages, payday lending and abusive credit practices.

After the House/Senate conference committee approved the legislation?with no Republicans supporting it?President Obama said:

The reforms making their way through Congress will hold Wall Street accountable so we can help prevent another financial crisis like the one that we’re still recovering from.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).