House Approves Legislation That Mandates the Disclosure of Political Spending

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
NYT

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved legislation to curtail the ability of corporations and other special interest groups to influence elections by requiring greater disclosure of their role in paying for campaign advertising.

The bill is intended to counter a Supreme Court ruling in January that the federal government may not ban political spending by corporations and other advocacy groups, like labor unions. The ruling overturned two precedents, including a 1990 ruling that upheld restrictions on political spending by corporations.

The vote was 219 to 206, with just two Republicans joining Democrats in favor. Opposed were 170 Republicans and 36 Democrats. Republican leaders assailed the bill as an infringement on free speech and the First Amendment, and its chances are shaky in the Senate.

Known as the Disclose Act, the acronym for Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections, the bill would ban spending on political campaigns by corporations that have $10 million or more in government contracts as well as by American corporations that are controlled by foreign citizens.

(More here. Here's another version of the bill:)

Financial reform bill leaves Wall Street intact

By Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 25, 2010; 8:02 AM

Key House and Senate lawmakers agreed on far-reaching new financial rules early Friday after weeks of division, delay and frantic last-minute deal making. The dawn compromise set up a potential vote in both houses of Congress next week that could send the landmark legislation to President Obama by July 4.

Lawmakers pulled an all-nighter, wrapping up their work at 5:39 a.m. -- more than 20 messy, mind-numbing, exhaustive hours after they began Thursday morning.

"It's a great moment. I'm proud to have been here," said a teary-eyed Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."

Both the House and Senate must approve the compromise legislation before it can go to Obama for his signature.

(Continued here. Here's the Wall Street Journal's analysis:

Major Provisions in the Financial Overhaul Bill

By VICTORIA MCGRANE
WSJ

WASHINGTON -- The sweeping financial overhaul legislation negotiators wrapped up early Friday morning would constitute the biggest overhaul of U.S. financial regulations since the 1930s. The legislation, broadly, is designed to close the regulatory gaps and end the speculative trading practices that contributed to the 2008 financial market crisis. Major components of the bill include:

NEW REGULATORY AUTHORITY: Gives federal regulators new authority to seize and break up large troubled financial firms without taxpayer bailouts in cases where the firm's collapse could destabilize the financial system. Sets up a liquidation procedure run by the FDIC. Treasury would supply funds to cover the up-front costs of winding down the failed firm, but the government would have to put a "repayment plan" in place. Regulators would recoup any losses incurred from the wind-down afterwards by assessing fees on financial firms with more than $50 billion in assets.

FINANCIAL STABILITY COUNCIL: Would establish a new, 10-member Financial Stability Oversight Council, comprising existing regulators charged with monitoring and addressing system-wide risks to the nation's financial stability. Among its duties, the council would recommend to the Fed stricter capital, leverage and other rules for large, complex financial firms that are judged to threaten the financial system. In extreme cases, it would have the power to break up financial firms.

VOLCKER RULE: Would curb propriety trading by the largest financial firms, though banks could make de minimus investments in hedge and private-equity funds. Those investments would be limited to 3% or less of a bank's Tier 1 capital. Banks would be prohibited from bailing out a fund in which they are invested.

(Continued here.)

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