White House: Autos deal ‘possible’ Tuesday

The White House said Tuesday morning that the administration continues to negotiate with Capitol Hill Democrats over a plan to bail automakers out to the tune of $15 billion, and a deal is “possible” sometime during the day.

White House press secretary Dana Perino, who said Monday that a deal was “likely,” said Tuesday that administration officials met with congressional officials and exchanged legislative language through Monday evening, with discussions continuing this morning.

{mosads}She added that “good progress” is being made.

“I think I would just say we’re not quite closed down on everything yet, but we’re certainly — we certainly made a lot of good progress over the past several hours. I would characterize the conversations as cooperative in spirit. We’re working fast, but we’re also wanting to get it right. So we have a little bit of time to continue to work with them to finalize these details.”

Perino said it was possible a deal would not be completed on Tuesday, stating, “While we’re working fast, we want to get it right.

“So I wouldn’t read into anything if we don’t get it all finalized today,” Perino said. “We’re going to try to, but we still have some time to get it done.”

Perino declined to say what the specific sticking points are between Democrats and the White House, but emphasized that “our insistence that long-term viability be reflected in the legislation is something that we have held very strong feelings about, and that has not changed.”

“We just want to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed before we say that we have a deal,” she said.

The matter of a “car czar” was not a sticking point, she said, as it closely resembles the White House’s proposal for a Federal Viability Adviser (FVA). Perino declined to comment on any of the names being bandied about as a potential car czar.

Perino said she was unsure of whether the legislation, when finalized, would start in the House or Senate.

“That will be up for members of Congress to decide,” she said.