Big Three beg for aid as US bailout bill stalls

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 20:03

But the measure stops short of giving the government a say over the firms' operations through an oversight board or hard limits on executive compensation. While taking advantage of the program, the companies could not pay dividends, award bonuses to executives making more than $250,000 a year, or give golden parachute payments to top people departing from the firms.

A vote on the measure - which includes an extension of jobless benefits - could come as early as Thursday. But in an acknowledgment of the long odds facing such a plan, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also laid the groundwork for a straight up-or-down vote on the more widely supported unemployment measure, which is probably all that can pass this week.

The Senate auto bailout bill notes that 355,000 US workers are directly employed by the auto industry, and an additional 4.5 million work in related industries. That doesn't count the 1 million retirees, spouses and dependents who rely on the firms for retirement and health care benefits.

Critics argue that the industry's business practices - including lavish pay and benefits packages for auto workers - have created unsustainable costs for the faltering companies that can only be solved with bankruptcy.

"I can't see how injecting capital with all the legacy issues that each of these companies has is better than reorganization," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

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