Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Friday that he expects financial regulatory reform legislation to hit the floor shortly after the two-week spring recess.

“It is my hope that shortly after our return on the second week of April that we will come to the floor of the United States Senate to debate [how] we reform the financial services sector of our nation,” Dodd said.

Dodd has worked furiously to reach a bipartisan deal with ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and the mid-April deadline he announced Friday could help move those talks along. Republican Sens. Judd Gregg (N.H.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.), who serve on the Banking panel, predicted earlier this week that a bipartisan deal will eventually be reached. But Corker criticized his Republican colleagues for overplaying their hand in bipartisan talks on regulatory reform, and noted that momentum has built around the issue in recent weeks.

Indeed, Dodd and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) met at the White House with President Barack Obama on Wednesday to discuss regulatory reform. Dodd told reporters after the White House session that a bill could be passed by Memorial Day.

“In light of the events over the last several years, this is a compelling issue,” Dodd said on the floor Friday. “We can hardly leave this Congress leaving the door wide open again for the kind of abuses that brought our nation to the brink of financial collapse.”