Nebraska Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson will vote today to end debate on the Wall Street reform legislation. 

Nelson outlined his intentions in a press release and a tweet Wednesday afternoon saying, "doing nothing is not an option." 

"In my view, a vote against cloture is a vote for doing nothing," he said in a statement. "It protects the status quo and that is something that I simply can't do."

He argued that debate has been "open, fair and bipartisan" over how to make changes to financial regulations while protecting consumers.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will not push an amendment that would have limited a ban on banks trading derivatives in-house.

Dodd had filed an amendment Tuesday that would have significantly limited a provision backed primarily by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). Instead of the outright ban, Dodd's amendment would have required a study, a 2-year delay in implementation and the possibility that regulators could drop the ban entirely.

Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for Dodd, said Wednesday the senator would not offer the amendment.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) on Wednesday slammed the Democratic effort to overhaul Wall Street, saying it hurts the country's financial system and helps foreign countries. "This bill should be named the 'Expansion of Government for the Purposes of Making Us More Like Europe Act,'" Gregg said. Gregg took aim specifically at an amendment backed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) that seeks to delay a ban on banks trading derivatives in-house. The original ban was authored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). Gregg said the Dodd amendment makes the legislation worse by putting in place an "even more convoluted system" to decide on the prohibition. A council of regulators, headed by the Treasury Secretary, would have a year to review the prohibition and could decided to scrap the ban entirely. Federal regulators, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have already opposed the provision.

For the first time in more than a year, the consumer price index dropped unexpectedly in April.

Consumer prices declined 0.1 percent last month, the first time since March 2009, behind a fall in energy prices while core inflation rose during the past year at the slowest pace since 1966, according to Labor Department figures released Wednesday. 

Economists had predicted an increase of 0.1 percent last month. 

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, remained flat, rising only 0.9 percent during the past 12 months. 

Consumers are becoming more confident about the economic recovery, according to a poll by the consulting firm Deloitte LLP. 

Republican Ways and Means members on Wednesday sharply criticized bills by Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to legalize Internet gambling and raise roughly $42 billion by taxing it. 

"People sometimes resort to drastic things when they are strapped for cash," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who testified before the committee. "However, it is unfathomable that Congress wold consider legalizing a currently illegal activity that imposes on the most vulnerable members of our society just to raise money for more big government spending." 

McDermott's tax proposal on Internet gambling was the subject of today's Ways and Means Committee hearing. The bill provides Treasury with the authority to establish regulations and license Internet gambling operators. 

Federal regulators offered Tuesday a preliminary explanation of what happened May 6 when stocks plunged in value then made up ground before financial markets closed. 

Besides heightened volatility that day due to fears surrounding the European debt crisis, about half a dozen theories have been formulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as to what happened to force the market down about 1,000 then back up again. 

The CFTC and SEC has formed a Joint Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues to probe the market events. 

Dems ponder avoiding tough vote on massive federal deficit; all options are examined, including a "deeming resolution"

A senior Blue Dog Democrat doubts the House would take up a budget resolution this year.

When asked whether House Democrats would forego a budget resolution, Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) said, "I think that's where it's heading."

Hill, the Blue Dog Coalition's co-chairman for policy, said Tuesday that the major sticking point for his group of fiscally conservative Democrats is discretionary spending levels.

The Blue Dogs have been in talks with House leaders over their proposal for a 2-percent cut in non-security discretionary spending for each of the next three years, and a freeze for the two years after that. Blue Dogs and other centrist members have blanched at the idea of passing a budget with deficits that would surpass $1 trillion in 2011 and remain near that level in future years.