House-Senate Conferees Eye New Way to Fund Reform

House and Senate conferees have come up with a new way to pay for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill as the Democrats struggle to move the legislation across the finish line. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., re-opened the conference due to opposition to a tax on large banks and hedge funds to cover the $18 billion cost implementing the 2,100-page regulatory reform bill. On Tuesday evening, the conferees approved an alternative "pay for" by using savings from terminating the Troubled Asset Recovery Program early and imposing an additional deposit insurance assessments on banks with more than $10 billion in assets. The House is slated to vote Wednesday on final passage of the bill. The Senate has delayed its vote until Congress returns from the July 4th recess.