In a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD), Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), a key member of the Committee, has called for immediate investigation into the details of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. trading losses. Senator Corker wants the committee to examine if the trades in question were bona fide hedging transactions or poorly managed proprietary trades, and wants to explore whether US taxpayers are fully protected from losses at major financial institutions. In addition, Senators Levin (D-MI) and Merkley (D-OR), authors of the Dodd-Frank Act's Volker Rule, have issued statements urging rapid adoption of Volker Rule regulations prohibiting hedge fund investments by large financial institutions being disguised as risk mitigation or market making.

A bi-partisan group of six Senators introduced a bill on March 22 that would postpone the implementation of the Volcker Rule set for on July 2.  Instead, the S. 2223 links the effective date of the Volker Rule to the date regulators finish drafting their Volker Rule regulations. Based on their concerns that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and others have said the regulations implementing the rule may not be completed by the current deadline, Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Tom Carper (D-DE), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Bob Corker (R-TN) proposed the legislation. 

Treasury, the Fed, the FDIC, and the SEC have announced an extension of the comment period on the proposed regulations implementing the Dodd-Frank Act's Volcker Rule provisions.  Originally set to expire on January 13, 2012, the comment period has been extended a month until February 13, 2012.