WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to delay final action on a sweeping financial-regulation bill, raising an obstacle to the legislation as it approached the homestretch.
The vote was 57-42, three votes shy of the 60 needed to pass.
Three Democrats joined 39 Republicans in voting against the measure. Among them was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who switched his vote from yes for procedural reasons. Reid said he’d seek a new vote today.
With Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., absent, Democrats needed one more vote to demonstrate to Republicans that they would eventually prevail and set the stage to pass the biggest rewrite of financial regulations since the Great Depression.
The legislation would set up a mechanism to watch out for risks in the financial system, create a method to liquidate large failing firms and write new rules for complex securities blamed for helping precipitate the 2008 economic crisis.
The legislation also would create a new consumer-protection agency, which has been a key point for President Barack Obama.
Republicans have escalated their attacks this week on the legislation, arguing the bill had grown worse and did not address root causes of the 2008 financial meltdown.
