After failing to clear a House vote on Monday, the $700 billion rescue plan for Wall Street passed the Senate by a comfortable margin of 74-25 and now awaits a House vote, which could come Friday.
While the 451-page bill’s core purpose remains the same, the Senate version includes a $250,000 cap on FDIC-insured bank accounts, up from its previous level of $100,000. Toward that end, the Senate bill would allow the FDIC to borrow unlimited amounts of money from the Treasury in connection with the larger deposit coverage that would extend until the end of next year.
The Senate’s version also extended a series of renewable energy and other business tax credits, as well as relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Both presidential candidates, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., voted in favor of the package.
