House Panel OKs Another $25 Billion for S&L; Rescue : Thrifts: If eventually appropriated by the full Congress, the new money would bring the total taxpayer tab for the cleanup to $130 billion.

For the fourth and probably not the last time, legislation providing billions of dollars to clean up failed savings and loans is moving through Congress.

A House subcommittee approved another $25-billion installment Thursday, less than half the $55 billion requested by the Bush Administration. If eventually appropriated by the full Congress, the new money would bring the total taxpayer tab for the cleanup to $130 billion.

Before endorsing the legislation, 25 to 11, the House Banking subcommittee on financial institutions rejected by voice vote an amendment that would have provided the Administration with “such sums as may be necessary” to finish the bailout program.

Some legislators are tired of the politically touchy task of protecting depositors, but many panel members of both parties objected to giving what they said amounted to a blank check to the Resolution Trust Corp., the bailout agency.

“I cannot imagine opening up this cookie jar and saying to the RTC, ‘Stick your hand in the jar as much as you want. Eat all the cookies you want,’ ” said Rep. Floyd Flake (D-N.Y.). “I think someone would get sick in the process.”

“There is no way on this issue that we can separate pain and responsibility,” said Rep. Gerald Kleczka (D-Wis.).

The General Accounting Office, the congressional auditing and investigative agency, had recommended that lawmakers give the RTC enough to last until next spring, well past the November election.

In a letter, the RTC said $25 billion would suffice until April 1, 1993. The bill adopted provides “such sums as may be necessary” through that date, with a $25-billion cap.

It also lifts an April 1, 1992, deadline for spending a previous $25 billion allotment, approved by Congress in November. The RTC had said it could spend only $8 billion by then.

The measure now goes to the full committee. It and the Senate Banking Committee are expected to act next month.

Rep. Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.), chairman of the House subcommittee, would not allow any amendments to the bill, but many are likely to resurface in the full committee, possibly delaying action.

Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III (D-Mass.) said he would push to block the Administration from protecting S&L; shareholders in government-assisted deals that keep weak S&Ls; open rather than closing them.

Brady has said Congress must appropriate additional bailout funds by mid-March or risk delaying the cleanup and adding hundreds of millions of dollars to its cost.

Initially, Congress allocated $50 billion in the original S&L; bailout bill enacted in August, 1989. After rejecting an Administration request for more in October, 1990, it provided $30 billion in March, 1991 and $25 billion in November, 1991.