WASHINGTON — Congressional aides and a senior administration official say the White House and congressional Democrats have reached an agreement in principle to speed $15 billion in government loans to struggling U.S. automakers.
The plan could see a vote as early as today. It creates a government “car czar,” to be named by President George W. Bush, to oversee the bailout billions and an auto industry restructuring. The czar would have to yank back the federal money if carmakers didn’t do enough to reinvent themselves.
The measure is not final and could still face obstacles from congressional Republicans, who have not approved it.
Republicans also were demanding — so far unsuccessfully — that Democrats scrap language that would force the carmakers to drop lawsuits challenging tough emissions limits in California and other states.
“There do not appear to me to be differences in principle of a sufficient nature to blow this thing up,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the Financial Services Committee chairman, told reporters.
Democrats and White House officials hammered out legislative language behind the scenes.
Even with a deal struck, though, conservative Republicans who want to force one or more of the Big Three into bankruptcy warned they might try to block the measure, virtually guaranteeing that it will need a 60-vote majority to pass and possibly delaying approval for days.
The core of the bill — and its aim — was not in dispute among the White House and Democratic leaders. It would provide emergency loans to two of Detroit’s Big Three — Ford Motor Co. has said it doesn’t need an immediate cash transfusion — and create the presidentially named car czar. The federal overseer would supervise a broad industry restructuring and would be empowered to pull the money back if the carmakers weren’t doing enough to ensure their own survival.
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