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2009.06.23: June 23, 2009: Headlines: Figures: COS - Dominican Republic: Politics: Congress: Politico: Critics say Chris Dodd takes eyes off finance ball
Critics say Chris Dodd takes eyes off finance ball
All the time Dodd is spending as a stand-in for Sen. Ted Kennedy on health care is time he’s not spending on financial regulatory reform, which would otherwise be his primary responsibility as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Dodd insists he can get both done this year, as President Barack Obama wants. But his critics are skeptical. “On something of this magnitude, you need a chairman with a very hands-on approach,” said Brian Gardner, a former GOP aide and current senior vice president of Washington research for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a New York City-based financial services firm. “And until the health care debate resolves itself and Dodd returns to focus on regulatory restructuring, I think it’s going to be a rather slow go.” Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.
Critics say Chris Dodd takes eyes off finance ball
Critics: Chris Dodd takes eyes off finance ball
By VICTORIA MCGRANE | 6/23/09 12:07 PM EDT
You could almost see the campaign commercials as Sen. Chris Dodd — hard at work in shirt-sleeves — presided last week over three very long days of committee action on health care.
It may be the perfect issue for a Senate veteran with a tarnished image and a tough reelection fight ahead.
But there’s just one catch: All the time Dodd is spending as a stand-in for Sen. Ted Kennedy on health care is time he’s not spending on financial regulatory reform, which would otherwise be his primary responsibility as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Dodd insists he can get both done this year, as President Barack Obama wants. But his critics are skeptical.
“On something of this magnitude, you need a chairman with a very hands-on approach,” said Brian Gardner, a former GOP aide and current senior vice president of Washington research for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a New York City-based financial services firm. “And until the health care debate resolves itself and Dodd returns to focus on regulatory restructuring, I think it’s going to be a rather slow go.”
And it’s not just a matter of timing. The Democrats on Dodd’s committee are divided on the White House financial reform plan, and the dissenters could take control of the process if the chairman isn’t firmly in control.
“There’s no consensus view on these issues,” said one financial services executive. While House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has found some sort of harmony among Democrats on his committee, the executive said that Dodd’s committee is “all over the place ... which makes it all the more cumbersome when he does parachute back in.”
Dodd and his supporters dismiss the idea that he is neglecting his chairman duties on the regulatory legislation.
Dodd has repeatedly stressed that he is working on financial regulatory overhaul at the same time he stands in for Kennedy on the health care front.
“We are working at it,” Dodd said after Obama unveiled his regulatory reform blueprint at the White House on June 17. “I want to emphasize that while there are other matters dominating the attention of the Senate right now, I can just tell you that the Senate Banking Committee is working already on drafting ideas and proposals in consultation, obviously, with Barney and the White House on the very bill that the president has outlined this morning.”
Dodd’s staff talks just about every day with administration aides on the issue, and his office points to the fact that the committee has already held 15 hearings this year related to the regulatory reform issue, 12 of them before the full committee.
But Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the committee, said there’s no way that financial regulatory reform will move quickly if his colleagues — and his chairman — are focused on health care. And that’s just fine with him.
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