Frank recommends House conferees for Wall Street bill

Picking fellow House lawmakers to craft the final Wall Street overhaul bill is "distincty not enjoyable," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Tuesday.

Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will serve as chairman of the conference between the House and Senate that will reconcile differences between the two chambers' legislation. Frank said he hoped "not to introduce divisiveness" into the financial services panel by picking and choosing among the members.

"I enjoy almost all parts of this job of Chairman, but I have just come up against one that is distinctly not enjoyable: having to pick Members of the Committee to recommend to the Speaker to be Conferees. I appreciate the cooperation that has marked our work together as we have dealt with very difficult legislation, and picking and choosing among the Members, many of whom have told me of their interest in being Conferees, would be impossible to do on any rational basis, and I would hate to engender any resentment to spoil what I think has been a very good working relationship," Frank said in a memo to Democratic members of his panel that was obtained by The Hill.

Frank is recommending that the conference have eight Democrats and five Republicans representing the House, in addition to the seven Senate Democrats and five Senate Republicans that were named on Tuesday.

Frank suggested to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee and a senior member on the financial panel, be named a conferee alongside the six subcommittee chairs.

The subcommittee chairmen are Democratic Reps. Paul Kanjorski (Pa.), Mel Watt (N.C.), Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) and Dennis Moore (Kan.).