Reid: Get ready for a late night

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told colleagues they will be working late into the evening Thursday on the Wall Street reform bill.
 
Reid also hinted at the possibility of votes on Friday, which were not originally expected.
 
{mosads}“We have a lot of amendments to get through, and we’re going to work into the night,” Reid told colleagues Thursday morning.
 
“We have work we need to do tomorrow so everyone should be aware that we have lot of issues that we have to resolve on this most important legislation,” he said.
 
Senators have offered more than 130 amendments to the broad Wall Street reform bill.
 
Reid said the Senate would immediately consider an amendment offered by Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
 
Reid said the chamber would then consider an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to require the Federal Reserve to submit to an audit by the Government Accountability Office.
 
The Sanders amendment, which would force the Fed to disclose online all the recipients of loans it made through the discount window program, is a tough vote for Democrats. Liberals and conservatives support the measure but the Obama administration, led by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, strongly oppose it.
 
The Shelby-McConnell amendment would establish a Division of Consumer Financial Protection within the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, replacing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Democrats want to establish at the Federal Reserve.
 
During floor remarks, McConnell argued the Consumer Protection Bureau that Democrats favor at the Fed would ensnare a range of businesses in federal bureaucracy.
 
“We received a letter yesterday from groups representing hundreds of thousands of businesses — from florists to orthodontists to builders to car dealers — all concerned about the potential impact this new agency would have,” McConnell said.

“Why on earth would we want to punish them for the reckless behavior we saw on Wall Street?” he added.
 
McConnell said his amendment would establish a new division at the FDIC that would focus solely on mortgage originators and other big financial service providers.
 
“That’s where the target should lie — not on the backs of America’s small businesses and middle-class Americans who expected to be protected by this bill, not punished,” McConnell said.