The U.S. Senate version of The Big Bailout Bill

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on their revision of The Big Bailout Bill, otherwise known as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. It is written in the form of an amendment to some other legislation. I do not know if that is a current version or not since everything is in a state of flux down there in "The District." The Senate will supposedly vote at 7:30 p.m. tonight and then the House will vote on Friday.

In theory, there are not a lot of differences from the original House version besides the raising of FDIC limits and some tax relief, but somehow the Senate managed to expand 110 pages to 451 pages. Some of that is simply the page layout -- presumably since Senators tend to be older and their eyesight weaker.

Here is the main part of the FDIC change, in classic congressional-speak:

SEC. 136. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN DEPOSIT AND SHARE INSURANCE COVERAGE.

(a) FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE ACT; TEMPORARY INCREASE IN DEPOSIT INSURANCE.--

(1) INCREASED AMOUNT.—Effective only during the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2009, section 11(a)(1)(E) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1821(a)(1)(E)) shall apply with "$250,000" substituted for "$100,000".

A lot of people are making a big deal about the public debt ceiling being raised to over $11 trillion ($11,315,000,000,000), but I would note that it is less than one year of GDP which is over $14 trillion. Average citizens routinely take on mortgages way above their annual income, so there is not even anything superficially outrageous about the level of public debt. Everything is relative.

Here is a link to an unofficial copy of the bill.

Here is a link to another unofficial copy of the bill.

This is the official draft from the Senate Banking Committee Web site.

Here is the official one-page summary.

Here is the official section-by-section analysis.

-- Jack Krupansky