WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives is expected to debate financial regulatory reform next month, Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat, is moving ahead with hearings, Hoyer said at his weekly press briefing.

We expect to bring that bill to the floor next month, the House majority leader said.

Frank's committee has tentatively scheduled a three-day bill-drafting session for October 14-16 where it will likely vote on two measures, according to a House aide.

One is a proposal to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market. The other is to establish a new government watchdog agency for financial consumers.

Another committee drafting session is tentatively set for October 21-22 on measures to require hedge funds to register with the government, create a federal insurance office and beef up the Securities and Exchange Commission, the aide said.

Regulatory reform is critically important as we take every effort we can to prevent a repeat of the failure of our financial system to self-regulate and the failure of the regulatory system to operate in a vigorous manner, Hoyer said.

He added that those failures led to the financial crises and the worst economic downturn the United States has seen in three decades.

(Reporting by Donna Smith and Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by James Dalgleish)