House passes bailout on second attempt

The House has approved a massive Wall Street bailout four days after rejecting a similar measure.

The measure was approved in a 263 to 171 vote, with 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans offering support.

{mosads}The House voted against a similar measure on Monday, which caused the Dow Jones Industrial to plunge by 778 points — the greatest single-day drop in the average’s history.

The market  jumped more than 200 points in the morning after a better-than-expected report on job losses from the Labor Department. It had dropped from its high for the day after the House vote, but was still up about 150 points. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other leaders from both parties urged lawmakes to support the package in order to help a troubled economy.

“It's an important vote, it's a difficult vote, but it is a vote we must win for the American people,” Pelosi said.

The Senate had approved a modified version of the bill on Wednesday that added a giant tax package, including a one-year patch of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) that otherwise would be imposed on about 24 million middle-class taxpayers. The House on Friday considered that bill, which also included a provision to increase the level of federally insured deposits from $100,000 to $250,000.

The inclusion of the AMT patch and the additional deposit assurance appeared to win the deal some Republican votes. Only 65 Republicans voted for Monday’s measure.

Democrats also won 32 more votes than they had on Monday, despite reservations from some conservative Democrats that the tax package would add to the deficit.

Congressional leaders and President Bush heavily lobbied House lawmakers who had voted no on Monday to convince them of the urgency of the situation. K Street’s lobbyists also pulled out all the stops after Monday’s embarrassing defeat.

In addition, federal legislators noted that the public’s view of the measure seemed to swing following Monday’s precipitous stock market drop. While many lawmakers had said that nine out of 10 callers objected to the measure over the weekend and on Monday, things appeared to balance out later in the week.