House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that Democrats would seek to give $25 billion from a massive federal bailout bill to U.S. automakers.

“It would just be wrong to take it out of TARP [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] without a separate vote,” Frank said.

The lawmaker added that he believed that President Bush would sign legislation to help prevent a collapse of the U.S. automobile manufacturing industry. 

"This would be a terrible time and I think the White House knows that," he said.

The $25 billion would be separate from the $25 billion that Congress provided car manufacturers to retool factories to comply with tougher fuel-efficiency standards. Frank said there were some efforts by the manufacturers to ask Congress to use the earlier $25 billion for immediate financial help. He said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “absolutely rejected that with broad support.”

Meantime, the White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that Congress would be responsible for adding legislation aimed at bailing out struggling automotive manufacturers, but stopped short of endorsing whatever Congress might put forth.

Perino made it clear that President Bush would not be making any aggressive decisions without congressional authorization, and she reiterated that the White House does not think the “intent” of the rescue package was to include automakers.

Perino took issue with the suggestion that Bush administration policies might be to blame for the automakers’ failures.

“People can blame the president of the United States for a lot of things and a lot of things land on his desk, but the state of the automakers right now is not the president of the United States’ fault,” she said. Perino added: “A little bit of self-reflection is needed here, and not finger pointing at the administration.”