During the final days of debate in 2010 over a bill aimed at preventing another financial meltdown like in 2008, Sen. Sherrod Brown pressed for an amendment that would break up the biggest banks in the country.

The Ohio Democrat won the backing of 32 other senators for the measure, 18 short of a majority. Three years later, the idea hasn’t gone away. If anything, there appears to be growing support for Brown’s goal of making banks smaller in order to prevent the federal government from having to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue them if they fail again.