Don't just wait for the final bill – watch it being made!

House vote: check.
Senate vote: check.
Final bill: still working on it.

Before President Obama can sign financial reform legislation, it has to go through a conference committee, which will take the House and Senate bills and create a final condensed version that irons out the differences between the two.  The Conference started last week and Obama has said that he hopes to sign the bill before Independence Day, which means the Senators and Representatives on the committee have two and a half more weeks to come up with a final product.  Click here to see who is on the committee and find out what you can do to help make sure the final bill is as strong as possible.

David Dayen at Firedoglake has a comprehensive post about how conference works and what to expect from these sessions.  Click here to check it out.

One of the special things about this conference committee is its transparency; our allies, including the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), CREDO, and MoveOn, fought hard to make sure that these conversations were open to the public, and their campaign was successful.  The entire thing is being covered on CSPAN.

If you want to see how the conference committee is unfolding while you’re at your computer, we recommend the live video coverage and real-time reporting at the Sunlight Foundation.  They have their website all set up to give you the play-by-play and let you know what other people think of the negotiations via their twitter feed and other interactive tools.

(Photo: DailyInvention)