Sen. Bob Corker 'Abandoned' By GOP Leadership Over Bank Reform Outreach

Shahien Nasiripour and Ryan Grim
HuffPost

GOP Senator Bob Corker was emphatic on Wednesday that Republicans missed a big opportunity to influence what is perhaps the most ambitious financial reform bill to pass through the Senate since the Great Depression.

Republicans declined to offer any amendments during Monday's scheduled mark-up of the bill, choosing instead to vote against sending the legislation to the Senate floor strictly along party lines. It passed out of the Senate Banking Committee with 13 Democrats in favor and 10 Republicans opposed.

Failing to reach a bipartisan deal in committee was "a very large strategic mistake," the Tennessee senator told reporters after his speech before a U.S. Chamber of Commerce summit in Washington. Declining to offer amendments, and then passing the bill out of committee along party lines, "talks about how dysfunctional, how dysfunctional we have been as a committee and the Senate has been in addressing this issue," Corker said in reference to financial reform.

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