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The Senate is preparing to scale back the sweeping banking regulations passed after the 2008 financial crisis, with more than a dozen Democrats ready to give Republicans the votes they need to weaken one of President Barack Obama’s largest legislative achievements, the Washington Post reported. The core of the new bill exempts about two dozen financial companies with assets between $50 billion and $250 billion from the highest levels of scrutiny by the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank. Supporters argue that the legislation would bring much-needed relief to midsize and regional banks that were treated like their much larger counterparts under the 2010 legislation known as Dodd-Frank. Opponents say that it would weaken the oversight needed to stave off the type of dangerous lending and investing that brought the U.S. economy to its knees. The Senate is slated to take an initial procedural vote this week to move the measure forward, and if it eventually becomes law, it would be the most substantial weakening of Dodd-Frank since it was passed.

Top bankruptcy scholars are pushing federal lawmakers to pass a rule that would make major corporations file for bankruptcy closer to their headquarters, saying remote restructurings “defy common sense and may leave local citizens suspicious of the motives behind it,” WSJ Bankruptcy Pro reported. Nearly two dozen law professors sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) earlier this week in support of a proposal to limit where a company can file for chapter 11 protection. In the five-page letter, the professors said a company’s “home base is the right place for [all stakeholders] to gather to resolve that crisis as fairly and successfully as possible.” The bankruptcy experts noted the bankruptcy process encompasses more than purely financial considerations. Proponents of venue reform say monitoring a case from abroad can be difficult for stakeholders. Lawyers in Wilmington, Del., and New York — where many big cases are filed — can be expensive to hire and the “local legal community in the distant venue may be close knit and frugal in the information it shares,” the professors said. The letter intensifies the debate over the Jan. 8 bill from Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) No other lawmakers have signed onto the bill. Last month, the New York City Bar Association voiced opposition to the rule, calling it a “myth” that workers, vendors and other groups can’t fully participate in remote bankruptcy cases. Technological advancements such as telephonic appearances at court hearings and online court documents have reduced the hurdles for remote participation.

Congress moved to end a five-hour government shutdown early Friday morning after the House voted to support a massive bipartisan budget deal that stands to add hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending on the military, domestic programs and disaster relief, the Washington Post reported. The 240-to-186 House vote gaveled to a close just after 5:30 a.m., nearly four hours after the Senate cleared the legislation on a vote of 71 to 28, with wide bipartisan support. But action did not come soon enough to avoid a brief government shutdown — the second in three weeks — as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) delayed the Senate vote past midnight to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit. President Trump is expected to sign the bill later today to officially end the shutdown.