
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991                   TAG: 9103200091
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BAILOUT TRANSFUSION ZIPS THROUGH SENATE/ BILL PUTS $30 BILLION MORE INTO

The Senate took less than one minute Tuesday to approve a compromise bill pumping an additional $30 billion in taxpayer money into the bailout of depositors in failed savings and loan associations.

The measure was adopted on a voice vote, shortly after Senate-House negotiators worked out the compromise in less than 15 minutes.

The House is expected to give the measure final congressional approval later this week. President Bush is expected to sign it.

But members of the negotiating committees were no more enamored of the legislation than they and other lawmakers were when the bills originally passed the House and Senate. Members of Congress are wary that the public perceives the bailout as just another Washington scandal.

"We have no choice," said Rep. Chalmers Wylie of Ohio, the senior Republican on the House Banking Committee. "We must provide the necessary resources to cover the insured deposits of taxpayers and to maintain consumer confidence in our banking system."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., pronounced himself ready to vote for the final bill "only if we get an agreement we won't have to go to a public signing ceremony."

"Only with the lights out," added Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J.

The bill would raise to $80 billion the total taxpayer funds earmarked for the bailout, which became necessary after the federal fund that insures S&L deposits was depleted.

The bailout agency, the Resolution Trust Corp., also is borrowing $100 billion or so on its own to acquire the assets of failed S&Ls. This money is expected to be repaid once the agency disposes of those assets.

The compromise includes a House provision making it easier for the corporation to sell single-family homes that it gets from failed S&Ls. It also would require the agency to report publicly on its efforts to do business with companies owned by women and minorities.

by CNB