Congressional Leaders Announce Breakthrough in Bailout Bill Negotiations
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 28, 2008; 12:47 AM
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration last night struck a historic accord to insert the government deeply into the nation's financial markets, agreeing to spend up to $700 billion to relieve Wall Street of troubled assets backed by faltering home mortgages.
Negotiators emerged from a marathon session in the Capitol about 12:30 a.m. to announce that they had reached agreement on a proposal to give Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. broad authority to organize one of the biggest government interventions in the private sector since the Great Depression.
Full details of the plan were not immediately available. Lawmakers said their staffs would continue working through the night to commit them to paper. Under the plan, first put forward by the Bush administration in a late-night meeting with lawmakers just 10 days ago, Paulson would be authorized to purchase mortgage-backed assets from struggling firms in hopes of easing a credit crunch that has pushed global markets to the brink of collapse.
Continued Here: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092800064. html
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 28, 2008; 12:47 AM
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration last night struck a historic accord to insert the government deeply into the nation's financial markets, agreeing to spend up to $700 billion to relieve Wall Street of troubled assets backed by faltering home mortgages.
Negotiators emerged from a marathon session in the Capitol about 12:30 a.m. to announce that they had reached agreement on a proposal to give Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. broad authority to organize one of the biggest government interventions in the private sector since the Great Depression.
Full details of the plan were not immediately available. Lawmakers said their staffs would continue working through the night to commit them to paper. Under the plan, first put forward by the Bush administration in a late-night meeting with lawmakers just 10 days ago, Paulson would be authorized to purchase mortgage-backed assets from struggling firms in hopes of easing a credit crunch that has pushed global markets to the brink of collapse.
Continued Here: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092800064. html
