Democrats Tweak Bank Bill to Preclude Bailouts.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate opened debate on Thursday on a far-reaching financial regulation bill, and Democrats moved quickly to demonstrate that the legislation would not provide any future taxpayer bailouts of failing financial companies -- answering a Republican criticism that the Democrats had dismissed as false. The first amendment proposed to the bill, by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, was intended to tighten language in the bill regarding how the government would handle any future collapses of financial companies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]