Nearly two years after a financial crisis triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression, the Senate on Thursday sent President Obama a bill overhauling financial regulations. The legislation includes a provision by Senator Bernie Sanders forcing the Federal Reserve to divulge the names of banks that took more than $2 trillion in zero- or low-interest loans.  Sanders called the overall package a "positive step forward" but said much more must be done. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced on Friday that it finally had plugged the oil leak.  In New York, a famous billionaire died on Tuesday and left his heirs what could be a $1.6 billion untaxed estate.  And in Vermont, Sanders on Monday proposed a way to stabilize dairy prices and save family farms.

What Financial Reform Does The legislation, which the Senate passed 60 to 39 on Thursday, creates a bureau within the Federal Reserve to protect consumers in the financial marketplace, establishes a way to monitor the financial system for major risks, imposes tough regulations on complex financial securities known as derivatives, and grants shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive compensation.

What Financial Reform Doesn't Do The bill does not break up banks deemed "too big to fail." Incredibly, three of the four biggest banks in the country are larger today than they were before taxpayers bailed them out. The bill fails to impose a cap on runaway credit card interest rates. Senators rejected an even more modest proposal to let states enforce their own usury laws. To read more about the good and bad parts of the bill, click here.

Fed Secrecy The central bank will have to identify which financial institutions took more than $2 trillion in what had been secret subsidies. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke adamantly had refused to tell Sanders and others the names of the banks which took the loans. He now has until Dec. 1 to make the information public. The bill also directs the Government Accountability Office to review all emergency actions by the central bank since the start of the financial crisis in 2007. The GAO also will investigate apparent conflicts of interest involving the Fed and CEOs of the largest financial institutions in the country.  To read more about the Fed provision of the forthcoming law, click here.

Gulf Oil Spill A cap sealing BP's mile-deep undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico held tight and the oil stopped spilling for the first time since a deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on the night of April 20. The economic and environmental disaster still has not resulted in any significant energy policy changes in Washington.  For example, there were only 35 votes in the Senate recently for a Sanders amendment which would have raised $35 billion by repealing tax breaks for oil and gas companies.  Twenty one Democrats were among those who voted against ending the tax breaks and using the revenue for deficit reduction and energy efficiency programs.

Big Oil Clout The oil lobby is one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill. "Individuals and political action committees affiliated with oil and gas companies have donated $238.7 million to candidates and parties since the 1990 election cycle, 75 percent of which has gone to Republicans," according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Estate Tax The estate tax was proposed a century ago by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, but expired this year under a provision in Bush-era tax breaks for the super wealthy.  Four American billionaires have died so far in 2010. The heirs of George Steinbrenner, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80, could reap a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Sanders last month proposed legislation to reinstate the estate tax. "At a time when this country has a devastatingly high rate of unemployment, a huge debt, massive unmet needs and a growing gap between the very richest people and everyone else, we are currently providing enormous tax breaks to millionaire and billionaire families," he said.  "This is absurd!"  To read more about the legislation, click here. To read about Steinbrenner and the estate tax in The Washington Post, click here. To read Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 "New Nationalism Speech," click here.

Dairy Crisis Vermont today has only half as many dairy farms as there were in 1995. With processors paying prices way under what it costs to produce milk, state officials estimate that as many as 200 dairy farms, one-fifth of the state's remaining farms, could be forced to close by the end of this year.  Sanders on Monday detailed his legislation to stabilize dairy prices and preserve the family farms that have been a fixture of Vermont culture for centuries.  "Too many farms that have been in the same family for generations already have been forced out of business," Sanders said at the Ethan Allen Farm in South Burlington. "This is a crisis not only for our farmers and the communities that depend on them, but for consumers who demand fresh, locally-produced foods for their families."  To watch the press conference, click here. To read more about the proposal, click here.