WASHINGTON (AP) — Pacific Northwest lawmakers were split down the middle Monday as the House rejected a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system.
Eight lawmakers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho voted in favor of the bailout, and eight voted against it.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said the bill was better than a proposal last week from the Bush administration, doing more to protect the taxpayer, ensure Wall Street executives are held accountable and increase oversight, she said.
Still, McMorris Rodgers said she voted no, because, on principle, she is not convinced it is the right approach. Committing $700 billion tax dollars requires a longer, more thoughtful debate, she said.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said the bill would have ensured that taxpayers get a fair return on their investment.
The vote crossed party lines. Six of 10 Northwest Democrats voted yes, while four voted no. Two Republicans voted in favor, while four were opposed.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., said he voted in favor of the bill “because everybody knows something should be done.”
McDermott, a Seattle liberal who denounced the initial bailout proposal as a turn toward dictatorship by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said he trusted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to negotiate protections for working families.
But Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said the revised package was not much better than the original.
“For all the talk of protecting the taxpayer, there were only limited promises that the taxpayers’ $700 billion investment would be paid back and there were no provisions to help struggling homeowners,” Inslee said.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, called his vote in favor of the bill one of the toughest of his career.
He said the greatest risk for taxpayers was in not acting.
The bill the House voted on made substantial improvements over the president’s initial offer, including robust protections for taxpayers, an end to “golden parachutes” for corporate executives and substantial limits on how the Treasury can use the funding to be made available, Simpson said.
