The $14 billion bailout for the American automobile industry collapsed tonight after the auto union refused to accept GOP demands that it agree to big wage cuts for its workers and the bill failed a key test vote in the Senate.
New Mexico’s U.S. senators, Republican Pete Domenici and Democrat Jeff Bingaman, voted with 50 others to bring the bill to a vote on the floor of the Senate, but they needed 60 votes to make it happen. Some 35 senators, most Republicans, voted against the procedural motion.
The offices of Bingaman and Domenici had no immediate comment on whether the senators would have voted to approve the bill if it had made it to a floor vote. Bingaman’s spokeswoman said earlier in the day that he supported the version of the bill that existed at the time, but with negotiations still up in the air, she said that could change.
Domenici’s office has released no comment on his stance on the auto bailout.
The president might still tap the $700 bailout Congress approved earlier this year as a last-ditch way to provide emergency aid to the auto companies. General Motors and Chrysler have said they may be weeks from collapse, and Ford has also expressed concerns about the future.
According to The Associated Press, the White House is evaluating options.
“It’s disappointing that Congress failed to act tonight,” a White House statement said, according to the news service. “We think the legislation we negotiated provided an opportunity to use funds already appropriated for automakers and presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who will join the Senate in January, said after voting for the bill in the House on Wednesday that the collapse of the American auto industry would cost an estimated 10,500 jobs in New Mexico — or 1.4 percent of the state’s total work force — that pay a combined $58.5 million in wages each year.
Republican U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce voted against the bill on Wednesday, but it passed the House on a vote of 237-170.
Update, Dec. 12, 9:10 a.m.
Bingaman, according to his office, is disappointed that the auto bailout bill failed.
“It’s my hope now that the Bush administration will consider using a fraction of the funding set aside to stabilize financial markets to preserve this important American industry,” Bingaman said in a statement released by his office.