Reid Says Congress Won't Act Because 'No One Knows What to Do' [View All]

[seafan]

Source: Yahoo News

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Congress is unlikely to pass new legislation to overhaul financial regulations this year ``because no one knows what to do,'' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters today.
``We are in new territory, this is a different game,'' Reid said at a briefing in Washington. Neither Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke nor Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ``know what to do but they are trying to come up with ideas,'' Reid said.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said in a speech on the Senate floor that President George W. Bush isn't in a position to propose regulatory overhaul legislation because he is close to leaving office ``and the Congress is not in a position to pass it.''

Durbin said that Bernanke told lawmakers last night that an overhaul of government regulations was needed to solve the current financial crisis. Bernanke made the comments when he and Paulson told lawmakers of the Fed's plans to take over American International Group Inc.

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Reid and Durbin's comments come as White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration is willing to consider proposals being suggested in Congress to have the U.S. buy distressed mortgages, akin to the role the Resolution Trust Corp. played in disposing of bad debts of from savings and loan associations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080917/pl_bloomberg/adxsrzc6vwyw_1