Key senator sees vote on financial reform delayed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key U.S. senator reiterated on Wednesday that full Senate consideration of a bill to overhaul financial regulation may not come until early next year.

Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the full Senate will start considering the legislation and working with the U.S. House of Representatives as soon as November and as late as early 2010.

"If you rush too quickly in the heat of this, you can end up doing things you regret," Dodd said in an interview on CNBC Television.

He said his committee could start marking up the comprehensive financial reform legislation as soon as early November. In a "mark up," a committee amends and typically votes on legislation.

President Barack Obama's financial reform agenda is bogged down in Congress, with no legislation in sight in the Senate and leaders there still far apart on key issues. Progress has been made in the House, however, where Democrats hold a larger voting majority.

The House Financial Services Committee will draft and likely vote in mid-October on two key bills, the panel's chairman, Democrat Barney Frank, said earlier on Wednesday. [ID:nN30212031] Frank is the Democrats' leading legislator on the financial reform initiative,

Dodd said that in healthcare reform, he does not believe the government-run "public" insurance option is dead, despite a Senate panel's rejection of the idea this week.

"There's a lot of room in the public option discussion," he said.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski; editing by John Wallace)