Panelists OK $30 Billion for S&L; Bailout

Congress moved closer to approving more taxpayer money for the thrift cleanup Tuesday when House and Senate negotiators took less than 15 minutes Tuesday to agree to pump an additional $30 billion in taxpayer money into the bailout of depositors in failed savings and loan associations.

The compromise bill will go to the two chambers for final approval later this week. President Bush is expected to sign it.

The bills passed earlier by the House and the Senate each provided the $30 billion. They differed only on a few, comparatively minor details.

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,” Rep. Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) said.

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 Bush Administration is expected to ask for at least $50 billion more next year. This $80 billion total, which must be borrowed because the government is running a deficit, will not be repaid to the Treasury.

In addition, the bailout agency, the Resolution Trust Corp., 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 obtains from failed S&Ls.; It would also require the agency to report publicly on its efforts to do business with companies owned by women and minorities.

Negotiators modified and accepted a Senate provision granting immunity from civil liability to members of the corporation and its oversight board for official actions taken to dispose of property. The agency said the threat of personal liability had slowed disposition of some assets seized from failed S&Ls.;