Congress, Financial Overhaul Bill | featured news

The Congress on Thursday approved the broadest overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression and sent it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

A broad overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system cleared one last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday as it headed for final Congressional approval later in the day.

As vote nears, Senate Democrats don't yet have votes to overcome a threatened GOP filibuster.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin on Wednesday put off naming a successor to the late Senator Robert Byrd, which could further complicate passage of financial reform legislation in the U.S. Senate .

The sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial industry is President Barack Obama's answer to the nation's outrage over Wall Street bailouts. But come November if more Americans don't have jobs, Democrats in Congress could very well lose theirs, too.

Lawmakers were locked in an impasse over derivatives on Thursday as they struggled to finish their historic rewrite of U.S. financial regulations.

The Senate named 12 senators, including tough Wall Street critics and more moderate members, Tuesday to a panel that will finalize the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the 1930s.

Three Republicans joined the Democratic majority on Thursday in an action that put Congress on a path to approve a broad expansion of oversight of the financial markets.

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to delay final action on a sweeping financial regulation bill, raising an obstacle to the legislation as it approached the home stretch. The vote was 57-42, three votes shy of the 60 needed to pass. Three Democrats joined 39 Republicans in voting against the measure. Among them was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who switched his vote from yes for procedural reasons. Reid said he'd seek a new vote Thursday.

Top Republicans appeared nearer to a deal with Democrats on a financial regulation bill, with the ranking senator on the banking committee saying that they were “very close” on the key particulars.