Senate Will Take Up Credit Card Reforms Next Week

So said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who told reporters today that he’ll bring the bill to the floor without knowing if the Democrats have the votes to pass it. “We’ll see,” he said, according to reports.

The strategy could backfire. Senate leaders are set this afternoon to take up another proposal despised by the powerful financial industry — the cramdown bill, which would allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages — but it is expected to fail as a result of the banks’ opposition. The Senate’s credit card bill, which barely passed out of the Banking Committee last month, would likely suffer the same fate if it’s not diluted to get more lawmakers — including several Democrats from big-bank states — on board.

Meanwhile, House lawmakers this afternoon are set to pass a similar credit card reform bill, that would codify new consumer protections adopted last year by the Federal Reserve. Those rules take effect in July 2010 — depending on the speed of Congress to pass and reconcile its own reforms, the legislative changes probably won’t take hold much (if any) sooner.