Baker’s Bill Postponed

Reuters reports that Rep. Baker has agreed to postpone a vote on the Securities Fraud Deterrence and Investor Restitution Act of 2003.

Quote of note: “The bill is largely aimed at boosting the SEC’s powers. But one section of it targets state officials, such as New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, by proposing barring them from writing securities law exceeding or adding to federal statute. State securities regulators have attacked the bill as a shield meant to protect Wall Street’s largest brokerages from state-level investigations like the one Spitzer mounted recently into stock analyst conduct at Merrill Lynch.”