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Despite the House and Senate passing their own versions of financial reform legislation (HR 4173 and S 3217), the battle is far from over. Now, the bills must be sent to a bipartisan conference committee for reconciliation. Americans for Tax Reform identified 12 major differences between the two bills that conferees must deliberate over.

The Senate conferees are, Sens. Dodd (D-Conn.), Chambliss (R- Ga.), Corker (R-Tenn.) Crapo (R-Idaho), Gregg (R-N.H.), Harkin (D-Iowa), Johnson (D-S.D.), Leahy (D-Vt.), Lincoln (D-Ark.), Reed (D-Nev.), Shelby (R-Ala.), and Schumer (D-N.Y.). The House is expected to announce their conferees this week and it is still undetermined if this will be an open or closed session.

“This bill allows the government to spy on every Americans’ personal bank account and track their eBay purchases which they can share with Wall Street –  the least they could do is have an open and transparent reconciliation process,” said ATR President Grover Norquist.

The main differences identified by ATR include: corporate governance, proprietary trading, addressing too big to fail, the regulation of derivatives, auditing of the Federal Reserve, the establishment of consumer financial protection agencies and their funding, government regulation of debit and credit card transactions, the treatment of capital reserves, a resolution fund tax on large firms, auto-dealers exemptions and the threshold at which hedge funds must register with the SEC.

“It is not the role or responsibility of the government to intervene in what should be a private contractual relationship between retailers and merchant card transactors – the Senate bill contains this provision while the House bill, smartly, does not,” added Norquist. “This is just one of twelve major differences.”

A full list of the 12 differences highlighted by ATR can be found here.