Obama Wants Financial Reform by July 4

But first, Congressional negotiators must resolve substantial differences between the bills, which together total more than 3,000 pages and amount to the most extensive rewriting of financial regulations since the Great Depression. The process will begin formally on Thursday with a meeting of more than 20 lawmakers from both parties and both houses of Congress.

“I think it is very important for the stability of the economy for this to get done,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a Democrat and the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He said that Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, had urged him to produce a consensus report by June 24, when Mr. Obama is expected to leave for Toronto.

A White House spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said over the weekend that Mr. Obama was looking forward to discussing the financial overhaul at the G-20 meeting and reiterated that “he hopes to sign financial reform into law by July Fourth.” Read more at NYT