Dodd and Shelby agree on plan to bar bank bailouts

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said he and Republican Senator Richard Shelby have agreed “conceptually” on changes to the financial- overhaul bill aimed at preventing bailouts of Wall Street firms. The deal would eliminate a proposed industry-paid $50 billion fund to cover the government’s costs of liquidating a failing financial firm, Dodd said today in an interview. Republicans said the fund would encourage bailouts rather than prevent them. Dodd said the compromise with Shelby of Alabama, along with an amendment by California Democrat Barbara Boxer that would prohibit spending taxpayer funds to keep failing firms in business, “takes that issue completely off the table.”