Ben Nelson says he's still not on board with Wall Street reform bill

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Wednesday that his party's Wall Street reform bill isn't yet at a place where he could support it on final passage.

Nelson, a centrist whose vote fellow Democrats might need in order to secure 60 or more votes to pass their financial reform bill, said that amendments to the bill today are helping to draw him toward supporting the legislation.

"It helps," Nelson said of the amendments, both of which he had supported, to explicitly bar taxpayer bailouts for firms, and to enhance regulations to prevent and handle "too big to fail" institutions.

Nelson said, though, that there's still "a lot" of concerns he has with the bill, including how the legislation would affect small and community banks.

The Nebraska Democrat joined with Republicans in three procedural votes last week to block beginning debate on the financial reform bill. He was the only Democrat to do so.

And while senators in both parties have expressed hope that the bill could get broad bipartisan support on final passage, Democrats would like the security of having all 59 of their members on board, meaning they would only need to pick up one Republican vote to finally pass the legislation.