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Senate Passes Bailout Plan; 2nd House Vote Coming

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to pass a revised version of the $700 billion financial bailout proposal that stalled in the House earlier this week. The latest financial rescue plan contains "sweeteners" like tax breaks and increased limits on federal bank deposit insurance. The House is expected to take up a second vote on the bailout in the next few days.

In a 74-25 vote on Wednesday evening, the Senate agreed on a plan that incorporates terms of the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout, but "added $110 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision to raise the cap on federal deposit insurance from $100,000 to $250,000," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The New York Times reports that now, after a bipartisan alliance in the Senate "showed no hesitation in backing a proposal that had drawn public scorn," pressure is on the House to "win over at least the dozen or so votes needed to reverse Monday?s outcome and send the measure to President Bush." After its initial rejection of the bailout plan, by a 228-205 vote on Monday, the House is expected to vote on the revised proposal by Friday.

• Chicago Sun-Times: Bailout Passes Senate, House Foes Soften
• N.Y. Times: Pressure Builds on House After Senate Backs Bailout
• Draft of the Senate's Bailout Proposal [PDF file] (N.Y Times)
• Washington Post: How the Senate Rescue Bill is Different
• Timeline: A Year of Global Financial Turbulence (Reuters)
• House Vote Rejects Financial Bailout Plan, 228-205 (FindLaw's Common Law Blog 9/29/08)

Full post as published by FindLaw's Common Law on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).