Obama disappointed on reform vote, urges talks to continue

President Barack Obama cautioned lawmakers against watering down financial regulatory reform legislation and urged them to get back to work after a Monday vote that delayed debate on the measure. 

Obama criticized Republicans for not moving forward on the measure saying "some of these Senators may believe that his obstruction is a good political strategy, and others may see delay as an opportunity to take this debate behind closed doors, where financial industry lobbyists can water down reform or kill it altogether."

"I am deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans voted in a block against allowing a public debate on Wall Street reform to begin," he said in a statement. 

A lack of consumer protections and accountability on Wall Street led to the financial crisis in 2008 and urged lawmakers to continue working on the bill, he said. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he voted against moving to debate on the measure because it needs broad bipartisan support. Grassley said he supported a derivatives bill out of the Senate Agricultural Committee that will be melded with the financial reform bill sponsored by Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). 

Grassley said he hopes that the "Democratic leadership of the Senate will work for legislation that has substantial bipartisan support and achieves meaningful reform of the status quo" and it should include changes to the management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-controlled mortgage entities. 

He opposes the bill because he says it will lead to more taxpayer-financed bailouts and a proposed consumer protection agency will create a new federal bureaucracy, "potentially undermining the role of other agencies to protect the safety and soundness of our financial system," Grassley said. 

"Instead we should be making the expensive bureaucracies we already have do a better job and hold them accountable for performance," he said. 

He said he's been working to require hedge fund registration since 2007 but the language in Dodd's bill "has a loophole that could make the provision ineffective for investors and pension funds." The measure also includes a provision Grassley has publicly opposed that could "politicize the inspectors general who are supposed to serve as non-partisan watchdogs at financial regulatory agencies."