United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he plans to bring to the Senate floor on Monday the proposed $25 billion in loans to Detroit automakers. Republicans, expected to oppose the bill, are said to likely use a procedural delay that would push the bill’s earliest voting date to Wednesday and the House says it won’t come into session unless the bill is passed.
Chief executives at all three branches of Detroit’s Big 3 – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – are expected to testify at two hearings in Washington, D.C., next week to plead their case for the $25 billion in loans.
Democrats who support the bill say that they will need votes from several senators in order to win the 60 needed. Only Ohio’s George Voinovich has crossed party lines to say he will vote in favor of the bill.
Alaska’s Richard Shelby, a Republican, told MSNBC that, without major changes in Detroit, the $25 billion would be like “sending money down the rat hole.”
“We’ve got to look at the model of Detroit and what’s the real fundamental crisis there,†he said. “I hate to send billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and it won’t help them in the long run.â€
The White House suggested again that Congress should look at speeding up the $25 billion in loans it has already promised to the auto industry. Those loans are, on paper, for retooling factories and engineering facilities to produce more efficient cars.
“We think the $25 billion that they’ve already authorized and appropriated, and that we’ve designed through the regulations would be something that they might consider accelerating to those companies,†White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters today.
