The 74-25 vote easily exceeded the 60-vote threshold for passage after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hammered out an agreement late Tuesday. Mindful of Monday’s 777-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the two Senate leaders had worked unusually closely and quickly to cobble together a compromise in consultations with House leaders and the White House.

"The journey to tonight was not pretty, but the result was rather magnificent in many ways," Dodd said. "This was a tough vote. I don't know of anybody who came from a state where they were getting anything but a lot of negative reaction to everything that was happening."

Reid said Americans are “deeply, rightly” against the idea of the financial plan, but that it was critical to the country’s financial health.

“Supporting this legislation is the only way to make the best of this crisis,” Reid said.

McConnell said the vote was particularly noteworthy given its place in the home stretch of the presidential race.

“Even at times like this, and when the stakes were high, we got it right,” McConnell said.

The ‘no’ votes came from Sens. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), David Vitter (R-La.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The vote now punts the issue back to the House, which rejected the bill by a 205-228 vote on Monday. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said he was unsure how many House Republicans would change their votes, although about 10 have called him since Monday with questions.

Reid said the Senate would be in session on Thursday, but only to conduct minor business and keep an eye on the House, where the bill will be taken up late Thursday or Friday. Reid said the Senate will also be in session the week of Nov. 17.

Both presidential candidates supported the bill, as did Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.), although only Democratic nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.) gave floor comments urging its passage. Obama and GOP nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) also had a brief and awkward exchange on the floor — their first since last Friday night’s inaugural presidential debate — when Obama crossed over into the Senate’s Republican floor territory and offered an effusive handshake. McCain, who appeared hesitant, accepted it.

Reid, McConnell and their lieutenants tried a different salesmanship strategy Tuesday, selling the plan as a must-pass safety valve for the distressed credit markets, which are threatening businesses’ ability to make payroll, as well as a wide variety of consumer loans.

Their work was helped along by two key changes in the bill: 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 GOP House members. The additions tacked on an extra $140 billion to the original $700 billion price tag.

“This hasn’t been standard procedure over the last couple of years, but there's been really hard work with the Republicans,” Reid told reporters. “Sen. McConnell and I have worked hard to get [the] point where we are today on this most important piece of legislation … Inaction is not an option we have. This is not a bailout for Wall Street; it's a bailout for our country.”

Earlier in the day, McConnell had said: “This is about Main Street and not Wall Street; it's about unlocking the frozen credit markets and getting America's economy moving again.”

The Senate’s action was a dramatic and rare move that circumvented a constitutional requirement that tax legislation must originate in the House. Senate leaders are skirting that by using a House bill already in the Senate as the vehicle for the financial plan.

Rank-and-file members from both parties said their constituents have a better understanding of the risk to the credit market, and they cited the fact that the bill has been significantly improved from the Bush administration’s original Sept. 18 proposal.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she has received 82,000 calls or e-mails from constituents opposed to the plan, and only 5,000 supporting it. Yet she said most people are only beginning to understand the ramifications.

“They’re beginning to understand that their job is involved. Their money market is involved. Their savings are involved,” Feinstein said. “People saw the market drop, they’re beginning to talk to their employer, they’re beginning to understand what happens once credit freezes and you can’t get that credit to pay your employees.”
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) also said the auto industry in his state is critically worried about consumers’ ability to get auto loans.

“There’s enough pressure already,” Levin said.

Obama’s floor speech for the bill came after he arrived in Washington from Wisconsin. An aide said he was leaving later in the evening for Michigan.

“Let’s do what’s right for the country at this time,” Obama said.

Republican opposition waned in the end, with support even coming from fiscal conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who routinely slows controversial legislation through the chamber.

“In my entire congressional career, there will never be a vote anywhere close to this vote,” Coburn said. “This is a time when you must stand and do what’s best for the country long-term, even though it goes against your gut, because the consequences of not acting are so horrendous.”

Not all opposition was gone, however — Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) slammed the bill in a harsh floor speech, saying it represents the government leading the country “into the depths of socialism.”