Congress Aims to Wrap Up Banking Bill

Congressional negotiators pledged to make an all-out effort to finish legislation to overhaul Depression-era U.S. banking laws today after making progress last week. “There will be every effort made to finish on Monday,” House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach told a House-Senate conference before it adjourned Friday. For the first time in more than two decades of trying, both the House and Senate have passed bills to allow banks, brokers and insurers into each other’s businesses. Lawmakers have been meeting in a conference committee to try to reconcile the two versions. Republican leaders want to get the final bill back to the House and Senate for final approval this week. The conference committee has begun debating the contentious issue of financial privacy, defeating an amendment to toughen restrictions on the ability of financial firms to share customer information with third parties. More debate on the issue is expected today. The White House has said it will veto any bill that does not contain adequate privacy protections.