WASHINGTON — After a week of tumult on Wall Street and Washington, the House moved toward a final vote today on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, an unprecedented government intervention designed to steady an economy on the brink.
Congressional leaders expressed quiet confidence they would have the votes to send the measure to President Bush for his signature by day’s end, four days after an earlier version was rejected.
“Our economy is not stable. Working families are suffering.
Unemployment is over 10 percent in my district,” said Rep Hilda Solis. The California Democrat voted against the measure that failed on Monday, but this time, she said she was considering a switch.
The bill’s critics said it was a step in the wrong direction.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who voted no earlier in the week, said that since the first vote, Senate leaders had tacked on billions of dollars in tax breaks and spending. Derisively, he called them “sweeteners to try and bribe enough” lawmakers to swing behind the bill.
If anything, the economic news added impetus to the sense of urgency.
The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. That came on top of Thursday’s Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by four percent. And the government reported Friday that employers slashed 159,000 jobs from payrolls in September, the most in five years.
The stock market opened higher on anticipation that the bill would pass, and the financial industry shakeout rolled on unpredictably.
Wachovia announced it had agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co rather than by Citigroup.
Executives said the new arrangement would keep the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., on the sidelines, thus preventing any depletion of the government’s fund that backs bank deposits.
The debate on the House floor came at the end of an unprecedented time of turmoil.
It was little more than two weeks ago that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke concluded that the economy was in such danger that a massive government intervention in the private markets was essential.
