FinReg Finally Passes Congress

Two years after the financial crisis nearly brought the economy crumbling down; Congress has finally sent the Wall Street reform legislation, designed to protect millions of consumers, to President Barack Obama on Thursday to be signed into law.

The Senate voted 60-39 in favor of the bill, which came in at a total of 2,300 pages of legislation aimed rein in big banks and protect the consumers, while also stymieing a future economic meltdown. But the overall impact of the new law will be in the hands of those regulators put in place to enforce it.

The bill will give the government the power to break up companies that pose a threat to the economy, while also creating a new regulatory agency to protect consumers in the financial market and will stop big banks from hiding risky trading practices what were seen as a catalyst to the recession.

"When this earthquake hit, there wasn't nearly enough oversight, transparency or accountability to shield us from the fallout," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. "This law will strengthen all three."

Republicans have said that the bill is an overreach and that the new laws will further hurt the jobs market by pushing financial-sector positions overseas.

"We're going to be driving jobs and business overseas with this massive piece of legislation," said Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, Georgia.

Three Republicans voted in favor of the bill, but that was just enough to give the Democrats the 60 needed and secured a win for the controlling party of Congress four months before midterm elections threaten to give control back to the Republican Party.

"This will be a vote that Democrats will talk about through November as a way of highlighting the choice that people will get to make in 2010," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.