Casino operator Caesars Entertainment has lost its bid to amend a federal law that would have allowed it to ignore creditor lawsuits while restructuring its bankrupt main unit.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) had withdrawn a provision of the federal $1.1 trillion spending bill that would have altered the Trust Indenture Act, a Depression-era measure that dictates what bankrupt companies can and cannot do to get themselves back on their feet.

Last week, world surfaced that Reid was attempting to attach his amendment to the spending bill as a favor to Caesars, one of his home state’s largest employers. Caesars has been attempting to restructure its bankrupt main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC) since January but junior creditors, who stand to lose billions under Caesars’ plan, have filed lawsuits aimed at stopping this heist dead in its tracks. The amendment would have let Caesars proceed with its plan without regard to the lawsuits.

The amendment first appeared in November, when it was attached to a federal transportation bill. Critics, including Tea Party types and the creditors the bill would end up screwing, raised a sufficiently loud ruckus to get the amendment pulled. But Reid is retiring next November and no longer cares what the electorate thinks of him, so he reattached the measure to the spending bill.