Byrd’s death, last-minute add-ons cast doubt on financial bill’s future

Senate Democratic leaders scrambled on Tuesday to find enough votes to pass a sweeping financial regulatory reform bill.

Following the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., on Monday, the Democratic caucus now totals 58 — two senators short of the 60 required to overcome a filibuster. Mr. Byrd, 92, the longest-serving senator, had been ailing in a hospital for several days.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, voted against the original Senate version. Mr. Feingold remains opposed.

“My test for financial regulatory reform is whether it will prevent another crisis,” Mr. Feingold said in a June 28 statement. “The conference committee’s proposal fails that test and for that reason I will not vote to advance it.”

House and Senate negotiators agreed on a final measure of nearly 2,000 pages in the early morning of June 25. That bill now has to be approved by the House and Senate before being sent to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.

With two Democrats opposing the original Senate bill in a 59-39 vote in late May, the party has to keep all four Republican “yes” votes in that column. Those G.O.P legislators: Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

But Mr. Brown is threatening to change his vote. The Senator from Massachusetts is opposed to a late addition to the bill that would impose a tax on banks to help pay for the regulatory changes.

“If the final version of this bill contains these higher taxes, I will not support it,” Mr. Brown wrote in a June 29 letter to Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. and chairman of the House Banking Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Dodd said on Tuesday that the House-Senate conference report will be reopened today to secure the backing of Mr. Brown and other wavering senators with whom Mr. Dodd is talking.

“There are people up in the air,” Mr. Dodd told reporters outside the Senate chamber on Tuesday. “It’s not an easy task. We’re getting there. We’re very, very close.”

The House is expected to pass the final bill this week. The timing of a Senate vote is unclear.

Among other things, the measure contains a provision that allows the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose the same fiduciary duty on broker-dealers and insurance agents currently met by investment advisers.