House Votes Down Rescue Plan

Updated from 2:09 p.m. EDT

The House of Representatives voted down the Treasury's $700 billion financial bailout package Monday afternoon, sending stocks into a record freefall.

As reports of the vote -- 205 in favor of the measure and 228 against it -- came trickling into Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 700 points. The index ended the day with its biggest one-day point loss ever and its heftiest single-day percentage loss since trading reopened after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The contentious legislation, which had been reworked by both sides over the weekend, was intended to allow the government to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities clogging up bank balance sheets. It would represent the biggest government intervention in the nation's financial markets since the Great Depression. ...