Financial overhaul bill faces Republican opposition in Pa. Senate

House and Senate negotiators are working to reach an agreement over a bill that would overhaul financial regulations.

House and Senate negotiators are working to reach an agreement over a bill that would overhaul financial regulations. The proposal has opposition from Republicans. Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey says he has grave doubts about the bill.

Joe Sestak has been hammering Toomey over his six years spent working on Wall Street. But Toomey says work he did 25 years ago should not be connected with the recent financial scandals. Toomey says he hasn’t yet made up his mind about the current financial overhaul bill.

“One of the problems with this legislation is an enormous amount of discretion given to bureaucrats without an explanation or without guidance,” Toomey says. “One of the dangers when you give open ended regulatory power to a regulator is that they get captured by the people they are supposed to regulate.”

Toomey says some changes are necessary, among them greater regulation of complex derivatives.

He fired back at Sestak’s critiques by saying that the Delaware County Congressman voted for the Wall Street bailouts while he staunchly opposed them.