There are signs that lawmakers have the political will to modify financial reform. Late Friday evening, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would direct the Government Accountability Office to examine the economic benefits large banks receive for being “too big to fail.”

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and David Vitter (R-La.), asks the agency to study whether institutions with more than $500 billion in assets enjoy favorable pricing of their debt because of inflated credit ratings built on the perception that the government will always step in to prevent their collapse. It’s unclear whether the House will take up the bill before the end of the session, but advocates of reform are encouraged by the broad support in the Senate.