http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/06/senate-votes-for-wall-str_n_567063.htmlA move to break up major Wall Street banks failed Thursday night by a vote of 61 to 33.
Two Republicans, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, voted with 31 Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, in support of the provision. The author of the pending overall financial reform bill in the Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, voted against it. (See the full roll call.)
The amendment, sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), would have required megabanks to be broken down in size and capped so that their individual failure would not bring down the entire system.
Under Brown-Kaufman, no bank could hold more than 10 percent of the total amount of insured deposits, and a limit would have been placed on liabilities of a single bank to two percent of GDP.