For supporters of the $1.1 trillion spending bill that the House narrowly voted to pass on Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is a force to be reckoned with.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts took to the Senate floor late Friday in a last-minute effort to prevent the upper chamber from following the House’s lead and voting to pass the so-called “cromnibus” bill, which, Warren warns, contains “a dangerous provision that was slipped [in] … at the last minute solely to benefit Wall Street.”
The provision in question would weaken the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Still another provision garnering left-wing objection would expand the amount of money rich people could donate to political parties tenfold.
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“You know,” Warren said Friday, “there is a lot of talk lately about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. There is a lot of talk coming from Citigroup about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi — I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces.”
Together with GOP Sen. David Vitter, Warren filed an amendment to strip the change to Dodd-Frank out of the legislation. But it’s not expected to go anywhere, as outgoing Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid would have to accept amendments to the legislation first, and Warren hasn’t indicated that she’d go so far as to filibuster the legislation.
Warren moved to gather opposition to the spending bill early on, and not just in the Senate, but in the House as well. Flanked by House members at a press conference, Warren called on her colleagues in the lower chamber to kill the bill. “A vote for this bill is a vote for future taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street,” Warren said Thursday. “It is time for all of us to stand up and fight.”
Additional reporting by Alex Seitz-Wald, Benjy Sarlin and Suzy Khimm.
Rachel Kleinman