Economy & Budget

The Senate on Thursday hurtled through a wrap-up session, with no roll-call votes occurring as expected, but the chamber won't be informally recessing until after a successful House vote on a $700 billion financial rescue plan, senior Democratic aides said, and members who have already left town are still "on call."

The Senate's wrap-up is likely to end either late tonight or early Friday.

After a House vote on the so-called bailout bill

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said on Thursday that if the financial bailout bill is passed, it will lead to "the decline of democracy in America."

Jones told The Hill that the measure is a step toward socialization, with "government taking over for private enterprise."

Jones, who voted against the House rescue plan on Monday and will vote against the revised package on Friday, said six out of every seven calls to his office has been against the legislation.

The GOP lawmaker has regularly bucked his party over the last several years, most notably on the Iraq war.

John McCain says he is confident the Senate's version of the Wall Street package, which passed the upper chamber last night, will make it through the House of Representatives later this week.

"I'm very confident we will pass this through the House," McCain told CNN's "American Morning" today, while noting that it won't be easy.

"I think it still is gonna be a tough vote, but I believe it's gonna pass," McCain said.

The House voted down its own version of the bill on Monday by 23 votes. A vote is expected Friday on the Senate's bill, which passed easily last night by a vote of 74 to 25.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Wednesday there will be no further changes to the $700 billion financial rescue plan being voted on later in the evening by the Senate, and that a successful House vote is the only possible next step.

Dodd said the legislation is too critical to go through any more "ping-pong-ing" between Congress's two chambers. Senate leaders have added an increase in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage of bank deposits, from $100,000 to $250,000, as well as extensions of popular tax credits and a freeze on the expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax, all in an effort to coax more support from wavering House GOP members.

Dodd said Senate negotiators resisted the temptation to add more.

"I don't want this to go back and forth," Dodd said. "We can't start to shuttle this bill. This bill is what it was, with the addition of the tax extenders and the FDIC provisions. Other than that, it's the same bill. So the House is going to have to belly up and deal with this. Does that mean I wouldn't want to write it differently? There were several ideas that I would have added last night. But if I did I'm just opening up this process, and we can't go another four or five days, ping-ponging this bill back and forth to the satisfaction of everyone."

-J. Taylor Rushing

Senate Democratic and Republican leadership aides are offering similar predictions of what tonight's final vote on the $700 billion financial plan will look like: Expect a number around 70 votes.

GOP aides say a majority of the Senate's 49 Republicans -- probably around 30 -- will vote for the bill, and Democratic aides expect slight more, about 40, from their side.

Seventy votes would easily exceed the 60-vote threshold necessary for passage according to a consent agreement hammered out Tuesday between Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

-J. Taylor Rushing

The Senate will vote Wednesday on its version of the economic bailout.

Read all 451 pages of the bill on TheHill.com.

Like the version rejected in the House Monday, the Senate's seeks to give the Treasury Department authority to spend up to $700 billion to purchase bad mortgage assets from private financial firms. But unlike the House's bill, the Senate bill includes tax measures to extend and create incentives for renewable energy programs and to provide a patch next year for the Alternative Minimum Tax. It would also expand the federal guarantee for money in bank accounts. Under current law, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees an account up to $100,000; the Senate bill seeks to increase the limit to $250,000.

Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have hailed the bill as a bipartisan effort and are pressing House members to also back it.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has already said that he's "not pleased" by the addition of the AMT patch. Centrist Blue Dog Democrats in the House have opposed any AMT patch that doesn't come with offsets for the revenue that would be lost.

Now Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist and House candidate, is attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the $700 billion bailout.

A day after House Republican leaders blamed a Pelosi speech for the bailout bill's failure, Sheehan said Pelosi is working "for corporate interests" by backing the plan.

"She put this bill forward and voted against the will of her district," said Sheehan, who is running as an independent for Pelosi's San Francisco seat. "Thankfully my opponent wasn't able to get the votes she needed in her own House to get it to pass. I am heartened that 'We the People' won the first round in the corporate bailout of irresponsible and greedy bankers."

Sheehan, in a press release, also called for a "bottom up" rescue plan that would place a moratorium on foreclosures and include more help for homeowners.

Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq while serving in the Army, has been critical of Democrats' inability to end the war. She said she's running against Pelosi because she hasn't brought up articles of impeachment against President Bush.

Dozens of powerful trade associations and lobbying groups again urged lawmakers to approve the financial bailout package in a letter sent Tuesday evening.

They ranged from groups with an obvious interest in the package, such as the American Bankers Association, to groups that would seem more Main Street than Wall Street, such as the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.

Read the letter below.

-Ian Swanson

JOINT ASSOCIATION LETTER TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRESS

September 30, 2008

We are writing to express our profound disappointment in the House vote yesterday rejecting the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, and to urge both the House and Senate to act as soon as possible this week to enact legislation to bring stability to credit markets.

Read the rest after the jump. Read more...

Monday's failed House vote on a $700 billion bill to stabilize the U.S. financial markets has not only rattled Wall Street; it has rattled GOP Senate leaders' confidence in their powers of prediction.

Twice on Tuesday, prominent Senate Republicans hedged when asked about legislative strategy or process, reminding reporters that they

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sent a letter to President Bush today urging all parties to keep up the push to pass the Wall Street bailout package that failed in the House yesterday by 23 votes.

Pelosi and Reid pledged to continue to work with Republicans and cited the stock market's post-vote plummet as a sign that yesterday's vote had "severe economic impacts both on Wall Street and on Main Street."

See the letter below: Read more...