Automobile Industry Crisis

Mr. WYDEN. Yesterday, when I heard the majority leader was going to call a cloture vote, I changed my schedule and hurriedly returned to Washington, DC, from Oregon, where I had been working on the Oregon Business Plan at the Oregon Business Summit in Portland. I was on an airplane, about an hour away from the Capitol, when the Senate Leader called the vote, and I missed the cloture vote on the $14 billion loan package for the U.S. automobile industry. It is my understanding that if my vote could have possibly made the difference, the Leader would have waited for my plane to arrive, but I want it to be noted that it was my intention to vote for cloture. While I continue to have concerns about ensuring that taxpayers are protected if this loan is to occur, I believe that if the President can unwisely provide $700 billion of taxpayer money for the investment banks that took horribly unacceptable risks and helped trigger an economic collapse, we certainly have a duty to attempt to preserve a cornerstone domestic industry and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of working people whose personal actions are in no way responsible for the current economic crisis.

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