Dodd, Shelby back at the negotiating table on financial regulatory overhaul

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) are seeking common ground days before a new bill is unveiled to overhaul financial regulation.
 
Dodd said earlier this month he had hit an impasse with Shelby, the top Republican on the panel, about a wide-ranging overhaul bill. But staff for the two senators have been negotiating behind the scenes, while Dodd and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a freshman, pursued a new bipartisan bill.
 
{mosads}”Sen. Shelby and Chairman Dodd met with each other just last night and will continue to seek common ground,” said a spokesman for Shelby on Thursday.
 
Republicans have also been meeting separately to craft an alternate measure expected to come up during committee debate.
 
A Senate bill was expected to be unveiled this week, but is now expected next week. The two parties have been split on several issues in the financial overhaul bill, the thorniest of which concerned an Obama administration proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to regulate products like home loans and credit cards.
 
The House passed legislation in December that included the new agency, but Republicans have been unanimously opposed to a standalone agency that consolidated consumer protection powers, removing them from the existing bank regulators.
 
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday met with several of the nation’s largest banking trade associations in a 90-minute discussion about financial reform.
 
One source said that Geithner told the banking lobbyists: “Don’t be so afraid of CFPA. It won’t be as bad as you think.”