Earlier today the Senate voted to approve an amendment to the portion of the financial regulatory reform bill dealing with “too big to fail” financial institutions.  The amendment is the result of an agreement reached earlier today between Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of that committee.

Although today’s bipartisan deal represents significant progress, the bill still does not have the full support of Senator Shelby.  Shortly after he reached agreement with Senator Dodd on the “too big to fail” provisions, Senator Shelby released the following statement:

I thank Chairman Dodd for including my changes to the legislation that will correct these critical shortcomings. While this progress is encouraging, the overall legislation still has a long way to go to gain my support.  My Republican colleagues and I will continue to offer constructive proposals to restrain the drastic government overreach in this bill and promote the competitiveness of our financial system during this time of economic difficulty.   It is my hope that this legislation can be further improved to achieve these important goals as well.