Key Republican says he’ll vote for financial-reform bill

Senator Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, said he will back the financial-regulation bill when it comes up for final approval in the Senate, moving Democrats closer to the 60 votes needed to pass the measure.

“While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote,” Brown said in a statement released by his Washington office today. “It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial meltdown, ensures that consumers are protected and it is paid for without new taxes.”

Brown, who said he spent the last week reviewing the bill, praised the removal of a $19 billion fee on banks that Democrats said was designed to pay the cost of implementing the broad rewrite of financial industry regulation.

With Brown’s backing and Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, saying she’s inclined to support the measure, the Democrats would be one vote short of the 60 needed to move the legislation to President Barack Obama’s desk. The 60th vote could come from one of two Republicans who have expressed support in the past, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine or Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, or from the appointed replacement for Democrat Robert Byrd, who died last month.

Snowe is reviewing the bill, her spokeswoman Julia Lawless said today in an e-mail. Grassley, who joined Brown, Snowe and Collins in voting to send the legislation to a House-Senate conference that produced the final bill, hasn’t said how he will vote. Grassley’s spokeswoman Jill Kozeny didn’t return a call and e-mail seeking comment.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, hasn’t determined when he’ll schedule a vote, his spokesman Jim Manley said today in an e-mail.

Republican support became more crucial for Democrats when West Virginia’s Byrd died last month at age 92 after serving more than 50 years in the Senate.

West Virginia’s legislature is scheduled to meet on July 15 to clarify the process for replacing Byrd, Sara Payne, a spokeswoman for Governor Joe Manchin, said today in an e-mail. There has been some confusion about whether the governor can call a special election in November for someone to serve the final two years of Byrd’s term or whether the successor Manchin names would complete it.

Manchin, who is expected to announce his candidacy for the seat, will appoint an interim successor at least until November after the legislature clarifies state laws. Democrats had expected to swear in Byrd’s replacement by the end of the week.

The House of Representatives approved the bill on June 30. Senate approval is the last step necessary to send the bill to Obama to sign it into law.

The bill creates a consumer financial protection bureau at the Federal Reserve, a council of regulators to monitor firms for systemic risk to the economy and a mechanism for liquidating large financial firms whose collapse would threaten the economy.