Senate clears way for financial regulation bill

WASHINGTON – Prodded by national anger at Wall Street, the Senate cleared the way Thursday for the most far-reaching restraints on big banks since the Great Depression. President Barack Obama cheered from the White House.

Breaking a Senate blockade by a single vote, lawmakers voted 60-40 to end debate and advance the massive financial regulation bill, which became a priority for Obama after the passage of his health care overhaul in March. Democrats had one more 60-vote hurdle to clear before they could pass the bill with a simple majority.

Obama said the financial industry had tried to stop the new regulations "with hordes of lobbyists and millions of dollars in ads."

Noting the near-meltdown of big Wall Street investment banks and the resulting costly bailouts, he said, "Our goal is not to punish the banks but to protect the larger economy and the American people from the kind of upheavals that we've seen in the past few years."

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