What does Dodd departure mean for credit card and financial reform?
Longtime U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd will not seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of the 2010.
“This is my moment to step aside,” Dodd said Wednesday during a news conference at his home. (Read his full statement.)
Heads a powerful committeeThe Connecticut Democrat is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. If you’ve followed credit card and financial reform as closely as I have over the past two years, you’ll know that no significant changes in credit card and banking rules happen without first going through this powerful Senate committee.
The chairman controls the agenda and decides if a particular bill bubbles up for scrutiny and a vote or dies in obscurity. There have been dozens of credit card related bills introduced over the past two years — covering everything from capping credit card interest rates to limiting interchange fees charged to merchants. Only a fraction have made it onto the banking committee agenda. Of course