chris dodd

Until now, the Senate’s health reform debate has been largely partisan, with Republicans blasting the various reform bills as a step toward socialized medicine, and Democrats, despite some criticism, firing back that the GOP is merely protecting the insurance industry at the expense of patients. Ideologically driven arguments, both. And the committee votes have reflected [...]

By 35 percent in just two years, according to a report released today by the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer advocacy group. Those overdraft fees — applied when consumers exceed account balances when making debit card purchases — generated $23.7 billion in 2008, up from $17.5 billion in 2006, CRL found. For context, Americans [...]

Just out from the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee:
“If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons capability, it would pose a significant threat to peace and security in the Middle East, especially to our close ally Israel,” said Dodd. “That is a threat to both national security and global stability – and it cannot be [...]

The congressional Democrats leading the effort to protect consumers from overdraft fees said today that, despite Tuesday’s news that Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase will adopt some of those protections voluntary, there remains the need to make the safeguards permanent through legislation.
“These are positive changes, but the system has gotten completely out of [...]

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will soon unveil legislation to rein in the overdraft fees that banks charge consumers who exceed their balances with debit card purchases, American Banker reported Thursday (subscription required).
The bill is sure to provoke an outcry from the banking industry, which claims the overdraft policy protects consumers by covering [...]

The 10 members of the panel named by Congress to investigate the causes of last year’s economic implosion appear to be wrestling with their role in this year’s push for financial industry regulatory reform, judging from their statements at today’s first hearing.
Brooksley Born, who fought unsuccessfully to regulate derivatives during her years at the helm [...]

With the news that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will be leaving his post to take the helm of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee following the death of that panel’s previous chairman, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) is set to take Harkin’s place on the Agriculture Committee. [...]

Still recovering from prostate cancer surgery, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) just shot out a statement reaffirming the importance of the public insurance option to the Democrats’ health reform legislation. Dodd had stepped in to replace the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee during the July [...]

The timing here isn’t coincidental, nor are the players.
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who head the Senate Ethics Committee, introduced legislation Thursday to force lawmakers to disclose the “full and complete” details of their mortgage arrangements — including dates, rates, the range of the amount and the creditor’s name and location.
The bill [...]

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, just responded to the Senate Ethics Committee’s decision to clear Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) of any wrongdoing in relation to their preferential treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp.
Apparently, clearing the senators was insufficient penance for the committee for having [...]