Here are some of the proposed amendments that lawmakers have added to the financial regulation bill, with their original sponsors in parentheses:
- Require construction of the U.S.-Mexico border security fence within a year (Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.)
- Strip health insurers of their antitrust exemption (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.)
- Make it easier to train lead paint removal contractors (Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.)
- Call on the U.S. to back multilateral efforts to probe and stop activities involving natural resources that "contribute to illegally armed groups and human rights violations in eastern Congo" (Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kans.)
- Require publicly traded companies to disclose occupational health and safety conditions at coal mines and oil rigs (Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.)
- Prevent senators from secretly blocking legislation from floor consideration (Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.)
- Require companies to disclose payments to foreign countries for oil, natural gas and mineral rights (Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.)
- End the practice of "secret spending" by requiring most spending proposals to be available on a public website well in advance of final congressional action (Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.)
