VOA标准英语10月-US Congress Approves Emergency Financial Rescue P

President Bush has praised what he calls bold bipartisan action by the U.S. Congress in approving a measure aimed at rescuing U.S. financial markets. The House of Representatives Friday approved a Senate-passed version of the financial rescue legislation in a 263-171 vote. VOA's Dan Robinson, Democrats² and Republicans joined to pass what they called an imperfect but necessary short-term effort to address the financial crisis.
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President Bush makes a statement after the House passed the $700 billion financial bailout bill at the White House in Washington, 03 Oct 2008

Speaking after the House vote, the president said bipartisan action will help prevent the financial crisis from widening, and sends an important message to global markets.

"We have shown the world that the United States of America will stabilize⁴ our financial markets and maintain a leading role in the global economy," he said.

Shortly after that, President Bush met briefly⁵ with Treasury⁶ Secretary Henry Paulson, who also praised members of Congress for coming together in a time of crisis.

In approving the legislation, the House avoided repeating an earlier negative vote that triggered the largest ever single closing point loss on Wall Street. That one day loss helped spur the Senate to adopt a revised version in a 74-25 vote on Wednesday.

One hundred seventy two Democrats two joined 91 Republicans in favor of the bill, while 63 Democrats and 108 Republicans opposed it.

Supporters referred to the dangers of inaction and potential ripple⁷ effects through the economy, while others underscored their continuing opposition⁸.

Representative Zach Wamp of Tennessee, who had voted against the legislation last Monday, explained why he changed his vote. "I have been listening to small business people all week long, and they said, 'thanks for voting 'no' on Monday, and thanks for standing⁹ up for us, but you have to do something.' Congress has to act. We're out of options," he said.

Republican Devin Nunes of California explained why he would not change his "no" vote. "The American people do not accept the allegation that we have only two alternative before us, passage of this bill or another Great Depression," he said. "There are other options if congressional leaders had the courage to allow this Democracy to function. We could debate these issues."

Colorado Representative Marilyn Musgrave expressed the view still held by many Republicans that the legislation would not be effective, and does more to help Wall Street than average Americans.

"Some things have changed in this bill, but taxpayers¹¹ will still be picking up the tab for Wall Street's party," she said.

Including $150 billion in tax breaks for alternative energy added by the Senate, the legislation authorizes¹² as much as $700 billion for the government to buy up devalued mortgage-backed and other securities from stressed financial firms.

Other points include a strong oversight¹³ board, steps to avert¹⁴ further home foreclosures, limiting large pay outs to executives, who leave firms involved in the plan, increasing federal insurance for bank accounts to $250,000, and steps to allow taxpayers to recover losses.

Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin was among Democrats supporting the legislation, while California's Pete Stark¹⁵ opposed it.

KIND: "Today, it's about protecting Main Street not Wall Street. It's about protecting the American taxpayer¹⁰, not CEO [Chief Executive Officer] salaries."

STARK: "This bill does nothing but bail³ out Wall Street and large corporate¹⁶ America. It spends $800 billion that the taxpayers will end up having to pay for and it does nothing for middle Americans.
　

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi with the financial rescue legislation before it was sent to the White House where President Bush signed it into law, 03 Oct 2008

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican minority leader John Boehner said the measure does what is necessary to forestall¹⁷ further economic damage.

PELOSI: "The urgency is clear. We hear it from our friends and our neighbors. We hear it every place we turn."

BOEHNER: "The American people sent us here to do our jobs on their behalf. They're counting on us."

The way is now clear for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to set in motion complex actions needed to ease pressures on the financial system and credit markets.

After Friday's vote, House Democrats renewed their pledge to take further aggressive action on financial market reforms when a new Congress convenes¹⁸ in 2009, with either Democrat¹ Barack Obama or Republican John McCain in the White House.

"Redoing housing finance, doing appropriate regulation, those are very important tasks," said Democratic Representative Barney Frank.

Congressional committees will hold a series of hearings in coming weeks to examine the causes of the financial crisis and the collapse of key firms such as Lehman Brothers and American International Group (AIG).

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

4 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

5 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

7 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

11 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

12 authorizes   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings 'traveler' and 'traveller'. 字典裁定traveler和traveller两种拼法都对。
• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings "honor" and "honour.". 字典裁定 honor 及 honour 两种拼法均可。

13 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

14 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

15 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

16 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

17 forestall   

vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止

参考例句：

• I left the room to forestall involvements.我抢先离开了这房间以免受牵累。
• He followed this rule in order to forestall rumors.他遵守这条规矩是为了杜绝流言蜚语。

18 convenes   

召开( convene的第三人称单数 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合

参考例句：

• The Premier convenes and presides over the executive meetings and plenary meetings of the State Council. 总理召集和主持国务院常务会议和国务院全体会议。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法
• Chinese woman tenth the National People Congress convenes grandly today in Beijing. 中国妇女第十次全国代表大会今天在北京隆重召开。

19 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。