WSJ: Finance Bill Hits Impasse

Republicans closed ranks Monday to block Democrats’ overhaul of financial regulation, a standoff that throws the sweeping legislation into a period of uncertainty. On a 57-41 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes they needed to begin debate, even losing one of their own. The vote dramatized how politicized the debate has become on an issue once thought to be a ripe for cross-party cooperation. The legislation is intended to help prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, both the heavy speculation and lax supervision that led up to it, and the series of taxpayer-funded bailouts that followed.

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