The committee approved the bill that had failed to find bipartisan agreement in months of preliminary debates between Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and then with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who took over negotiations when talks with Shelby reached an impasse.
The strategy of sending the bill to the full Senate with 401 amendments filed, in part reflected disagreement among the 10 committee Republicans on how to oppose the bill, The New York Times reported Monday.
"As evidenced by the overwhelming number of amendments filed, a large gap exists between what is contained in the bill and what Republicans are prepared to agree to," a Republican official told the Times.
Republicans could offer amendments on the Senate floor or re-open negotiations between Shelby and Dodd, the Times said.
Corker said he had "coordinated amendments with some of my Democratic colleagues thinking that this week we really were going to talk through a bill and negotiate fine points and get it into a place."
"So here you have a 1,300-page bill that is chock-full of substance that actually matters that really won't be vetted," he said.
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