Durbin sees ‘substantial’ GOP support for Wall Street reform on final passage

The Senate’s top vote-counter said this weekend that he expects a “substantial” number of Republicans to back the Wall Street reform bill before lawmakers.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that his goal is to stick with a planned vote in the coming week on final passage for the Democratic-authored bill to overhaul the nation’s financial regulations.

As the Senate enters its second week of debate on the banking bill, Durbin said he expects the final bill to yield plenty of GOP backing.

“My guess is, in the end, that we’ll have a substantial number of Republicans joining us for passing Wall Street reform,” Durbin said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program to air Sunday. “I think they realize that’s where the public is, and politically, they made a mistake.”

No Republican senator had voted to allow debate to proceed on the bill during a series of procedural votes in April, though the GOP eventually allowed debate to go to the floor. But while Republicans have supported some amendments to the bill in the past week, it’s not clear from which of those senators Democrats might pick up support.

If all 59 Democrats support the bill on final passage, at least one Republican senator would be needed to overcome a filibuster.

Durbin said that highly-anticipated voted could still meet the deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to finish the bill in the coming week, though Durbin noted the numerous amendments through which senators would have to plow to reach that goal.

“I hope we stick with it,” Durbin said of the timeline.