Congress Sends Bush Auto-Bailout Plan

Updated from 11:35 a.m. EST

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats have sent the White House a draft of a roughly $15 billion auto bailout that's expected to come to a vote this week.

According to a draft obtained by The Associated Press, the measure would rush bridge loans to Detroit's struggling Big Three and put an overseer chosen by President George W. Bush in charge of monitoring an auto industry restructuring.

The overseer could recall the loans as early as February if the carmakers weren't doing enough to reinvent themselves and become viable. And if the Big Three didn't come up with suitable restructuring plans by the end of March, the "car czar" would have to submit his own blueprint to Congress for a government-mandated overhaul.

The size of the package hasn't been finalized, but it is expected to be between $14 billion and $17 billion.

The overseer would be charged with running a broad auto industry restructuring, with the power to require immediate payback of the emergency loans early next year if the companies fail to take the steps necessary to overhaul themselves. It could also include a Cabinet-level oversight board composed of the heads of the departments of Treasury, Energy, Labor, Commerce and Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. Congressional aides outlined the emerging measure on condition of anonymity because it is not yet completed.

Under the plan, the carmakers could get emergency loans on Dec. 15. Then the presidentially tapped overseer -- a kind of "car czar" -- would write guidelines, due on the first of the year, for a Big Three restructuring. If the car companies hadn't taken enough steps to overhaul themselves by Feb. 15, 2009, the czar could recall the money. That would essentially mean that a person selected by President Bush would set the terms for an auto industry restructuring, but someone picked by President-elect Barack Obama would have the power to decide whether they were being met.