Progressive Sen. Maria Cantwell Courageously Votes No on Weak Wall Street Bill

The most courageous vote yesterday in the Senate was cast by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who refused to let the Senate sign-off on an unnecessarily weak Wall Street reform bill. Cantwell has been trying to fix a fatal loophole in the derivatives language which prevents regulators from enforcing new rules on the secretive shadow markets that brought down AIG. So far, the Democratic leadership has sided with the banks against Cantwell.

Here's the basic problem. When Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., combined their derivatives bills in April, they cut language from Lincoln's bill that would have made it illegal for banks to break the new derivatives regulations. As a result, the bill does a pretty good job listing activities that banks cannot engage in, but if banks simply decide not to follow the rules, regulators will not be able to crack down on them.

rest at http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/20/sen-cantwells-courageous-vote/