Fact-checking financial reform on ‘This Week’

The financial reform bill was the big topic on the Sunday shows, with Republicans and Democrats sounding optimistic they can reach an agreement. The guests on ABC’s This Week included Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, as well as White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee.

Corker said he was hopeful for a bipartisan agreement but noted it was getting to the floor without Republican support but with a promise of continuing negotiations. He said the banking committee had passed the 1,336-page bill “in 21 minutes with no amendments, with the understanding that before the bill came to the floor, we would reach this bipartisan agreement.” We rated that Mostly True.

Brown said the bill would end the government’s approach that some financial institutions are “too big fail,” a claim that has been repeated by many Democrats. But we rated that Barely True because we found there is nothing in the bill that would prevent the government from intervening in such a case.

We’ll be checking other claims from the show in the next day or two. We’ll update this story as we add additional Truth-O-Meter items.