A year after Wall Street failures plunged the US into recession, the House of Representatives on Friday passed the most ambitious restructuring of financial regulation since the New Deal of the 1930s. The sprawling legislation gives the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, creates a new agency to oversee consumer banking transactions and shines a light into shadow financial markets that have escaped the oversight of regulators. The vote was a party-line 223-202. No Republicans voted for the bill; 27 Democrats voted against it. While a victory for the Obama administration, the legislation dilutes some of the president's recommendations, carving out exceptions to some of its toughest provisions. The burden now shifts to the Senate, which is not expected to act on its version of a regulatory overhaul until early next year.
