Draft of Rescue Plan Makes It Into Writing

An end to the debates in Washington over the proposed bailout of financial institutions on Wall Street is in sight. Leaders in Congress gave an update on the status of the $700 billion economic-rescue package early Sunday evening.

“The era of Wall Street recklessness is over,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said of the bill, which promises more regulation as well as future limits to be imposed upon executive compensation.

Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) each spoke in support of the bill that will be presented to the House for a vote sometime Monday.

Now, even some of the more reluctant House Republicans are supporting the rescue plan.

Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), House Republican Whip, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave their support of the revised plan in a press conference Sunday evening.

“When we stood up and blocked the ‘so-called’ deal last week we did so because we thought taxpayers weren’t being protected,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) Sunday evening. “It’s a bill that does entail risk; taxpayer risk. But I think what you see is we’ve reduced the amount of taxpayer risk in this bill considerably.”

If passed by the House, the bill will then move to the Senate, which will likely consider it Wednesday, after the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah ends.

President Bush lent his support to the revised bill in a press release following the press conference, stating, “I appreciate the leadership shown by Members on both sides of the aisle, who came together to write a very good bill. This bill provides the necessary tools and funding to help protect our economy against a system-wide breakdown.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson released a similar statement of support, stating that the bill “provides the necessary tools to deploy up to $700 billion to address the urgent needs in our financial system.”

The bill, which is more than 100 pages long and is called the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” is meant to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, parts of which have virtually shut down in recent weeks.