Highlights: Republican gains threaten Obama agenda

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair speaks at the Reuters Washington Summit September 20, 2010.

(Reuters) - Senate Republican Richard Shelby told the Reuters Washington Summit on Monday that a Republican resurgence in the U.S. congressional election in November could virtually freeze the movement of the Obama administration's legislative priorities. Democratic lawmaker Howard Berman said Congress would keep on moving, regardless of the outcome, while FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair cautioned against any rollback of financial reform.

RICHARD SHELBY ON ELIZABETH WARREN, SPECIAL ADVISER FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY:

"I believe she's got a big ax to grind and she's sharpening that ax. I don't think that you need somebody in a position like that with all these preconceived ideas and I believe she has a lot of them. I don't' believe it's good for business, it's not good for the financial sector, and ultimately I don't believe it's going to be good for credit for a lot of people who need it. It's gonna cost."

SHELBY ON IMPACT OF REPUBLICAN WINS IN CONGRESS:

"Gridlock's not all bad. I think it's how you look at it. Our founding fathers created the Senate -- I think, if you go back and read the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, James and Madison -- for a reason, to slow things down and not do things on a whim."

HOWARD BERMAN ON GRIDLOCK:

"We're lame but we're not paralyzed," he said when asked if it was possible to get bills out of committee and to the full House for a vote during the period between the November election and the beginning of the new legislative session in January.

SHEILA BAIR ON BANK PROFITS GOING FORWARD:

"The go-go days, I don't want them to come back, frankly."

BAIR ON RISKS TO ECONOMY:

"I worry about government borrowing, I think we all do. And I do worry about the exposure the government has taken on in the housing sector. Is there any alternative at this point? Probably not."

"I just think we need some long-range planning to get our fiscal house in order and to get our real economy back on a sustainable track."

BAIR ON CONGRESS POTENTIALLY REVISITING FINANCIAL REFORM:

"I think to go back and completely reopen it now with a whole other set of question marks and uncertainties about what people are supposed to be doing ... I hope people would think hard about that."

BAIR ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT ON BANK BAILOUTS:

"We shouldn't have had to do TARP. The tools weren't there to effectually deal with some of the more troubled institutions. So I think the government having to come in and prop up these institutions, some of them, was a very undesirable option for everybody, but there wasn't any alternative....People are still angry and I don't blame them."