Only four Senators voted no, all Republicans (Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, James Inhofe, and Jon Kyl).

[4] President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law on May 20 along with the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, a bill concerned with mortgage foreclosure prevention.

[5] The Act changes the definition of a financial institution for the purposes of Federal criminal law to include mortgage lending businesses, which are defined as "organizations which finance or refinance any debt secured by an interest in real estate, including private mortgage companies and any subsidiaries of such organizations, and whose activities affect interstate or foreign commerce."

§ 1014, which makes it a federal offense to falsify loan documents submitted to a broad range of financial institutions, is amended to include mortgage lending businesses in that range, and for good measure also includes any other person "that makes in whole or in part a federally related mortgage loan".

§ 1031), which previously covered only fraud in government procurement and contracts for services, is amended to include a wider range of government involvement, including grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, transactions under the Troubled Assets Relief Program, and any "other form of Federal assistance".

[13] Section 4 of FERA restates part of the False Claims Act, to "reflect the original intent of the law".

[14][15] Finally, section 5 of the Act created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a legislative commission with each house of the United States Congress represented by three members appointed by the majority party and two members appointed by the minority, none of whom may be employees of the Federal government or any state or local government.