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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, January 12, 2009

Second $350B of bailout sought

By Andrew Taylor and Philip Elliott
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders, briefed yesterday by President-elect Barack Obama's economic adviser, said a vote is likely as early as this week on providing a second $350 billion in bailout money for the financial industry.

The Bush administration and the incoming Obama team have undertaken a tag-team effort to obtain the money from reluctant lawmakers, to have it waiting for Obama when he's sworn in Jan. 20.

President Bush would request the additional money for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but the incoming administration would allocate it. Obama's economic adviser, Larry Summers, briefed lawmakers yesterday on the bailout and on the incoming administration's plan for roughly $800 billion in spending and tax breaks to spur the economy.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said yesterday that lawmakers were assured there would be fuller accounting of the money spent on the bailout. Banks and other financial institutions have received billions from the government with few rules, and most won't say where the money has gone.

Obama, in a taped interview aired yesterday on ABC's "This Week," promised to see that more money goes directly to distressed homeowners. "When you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families ... we haven't done enough," he said.

A formal request to spend the second half of the $700 billion bailout would force a vote within days on whether to block the funding, but the deck is stacked in favor of releasing the money. Congress can pass a resolution disapproving the request, but the White House could veto the resolution; then, just one-third of either chamber would be needed to uphold the veto and win release of the money.

The idea is to make the money available to the new administration shortly after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The unpopular bailout has featured unconditional infusions of money into financial institutions that have done little to reveal what they've done with it.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson originally promised the money would be used to buy up mortgage-related securities whose falling values have clogged up credit markets and brought many financial institutions to the brink of failure.

To get the funds released, Obama and his team must soothe senators who feel burned by the way the Bush administration has used the TARP.