Rossi says financial bill could stifle job growth

Breaking his silence after days of baiting from Democrats, Senate candidate Dino Rossi on Wednesday staked his stance on the financial regulatory bill pending before Congress.

Turns out that like Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray, Republican Rossi says he's on the side of Main Street, not Wall Street.

But unlike Murray, Rossi believes the way to show allegiance to the little guy is to vote against the Financial Regulatory Reform Conference Report instead of for it.

Rossi depicted Murray's planned vote in favor of the measure — which could come as early as Thursday — as akin to putting taxpayers on the hook for another possible bailout of financial firms. He contends that it does little to discourage future risky behavior and called on Murray to "stand up to big banks" and vote it down.

In an interview, Rossi said he was particularly concerned that the cost of complying with new regulations and restrictions would fall most heavily on community banks. That, in turn, could make it harder for small businesses to borrow money, Rossi said, and stifle job growth.

Murray's campaign swiftly derided Rossi for overlooking the fact that Murray co-sponsored a successful amendment explicitly prohibiting using tax dollars to bail out troubled financial companies.

"It seems strange that Dino Rossi took weeks to take a position on this bill without apparently having read it," said Julie Edwards, a Murray campaign spokeswoman.

Edwards also accused Rossi of claiming that Murray favors allowing banks to get too big to fail. Murray voted for an unsuccessful provision that would have capped the size of federally insured deposit held by any one bank.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Murray said that passing the bill would "guarantee that American taxpayers will never again have to pay to bail out Wall Street or clean up after big banks' messes."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to bring the measure up for a vote this week, after having nailed down the 60 votes he needs to overcome a Republican filibuster. Three Republicans — Scott Brown, of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine — have pledged support.

The House already had passed the legislation, the melded version of the Wall Street overhaul bills passed by the two chambers earlier this year. The measure is aimed at preventing another economic collapse as happened in 2008.

The bill broadly expands regulatory oversight of risky mortgages, complex financial instruments and trading by banks; requires most unregulated derivatives to be traded through open markets; and creates a consumer-protection agency.

Rossi said it was necessary to "rein in some of the bad actors" who precipitated the financial crash. But he contends that the pending legislation fails to crack down on those culprits.

He also said he supports greater transparency in trading derivatives, which Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and others in Congress blame for amplifying the economic bubble.

Kyung Song: 202-662-7455 or ksong@seattletimes.com