Debate on amendments to financial reform are going to start tomorrow. The author of one of the key amendments, the SAFE Banking Act, says he doesn't have the votes yet.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said he lacks the votes right now to advance his amendment limiting the size of banks.
Brown held out hope that the measure, which he's offered along with Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), could win enough support to pass as the Senate debate moves forward.
"I don't think we do yet," Brown told Bloomberg's "Political Capital" when asked if he has the votes. "I think a week ago we weren't even close. I think this weekend we're closer."
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders says he has growing bipartisan support for his amendment to give the GAO more power to audit certain operations at the Fed. This amendment has the support of Labor, which will lobby for it, but has a strong opponent in the White House. This is the only amendment that the administration has thus far chosen to weigh in on, and the "Fed and administration officials have signaled they would fight to stop it at all costs."
On C-SPAN's "Newsmakers," Mark Warner said that another amendment that could pick up Republican support would reestablish Glass-Steagall.
"It may have a chance," Warner said during an appearance on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" of the chances for passage of an amendment to reimpose the law, which was repealed by Congress in 1999....
A bipartisan group of senators have pushed for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, which would force banks to separate their commercial and investment activities.
It's going to be a jam-packed few weeks of debate, and one in which Republicans seem ready to take a more substantive role in providing some strengthening amendments, including one expected from Susan Collins that would impose "fiduciary requirements on broker-dealers for both retail and institutional investors." Last week's Golman Sachs hearings should continue to provide fodder for amendments.