Bold Nebraska broke the news that Nelson is off the fence and will vote yes on cloture for the financial reform conference report--the bill settled between the House and Senate last month. After securing the votes of Scott Brown, Collins, and Snowe yesterday, Nelson's holding out made the margin.
Nelson's problem with the bill--not once uttered at any time during debate, was apparently a potential appointment: Elizabeth Warren at CFPA.
"You don't know who's going to be head of the consumer protection bureau," Nelson said after a vote. "You can't just send a rogue agency out on its own."
The suggestion is that Nelson wants input behind the scenes on who the White House might nominate to run the new agency.
Warren has been rumored to be the choice, but that appointment certainly hasn't been made since the agency doesn't exist yet. For the sake of the new bureau and for all of the consumers that agency is going to be helping, let's hope that Nelson's input wasn't his condition for his support of this bill.
Reid announced that he "expect[s] to consider the Wall St reform conference report some time later today."
