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President Bush signed the package less than two hours later, and Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson said his department would implement the the rescue program as soon as possible.
The final vote, 263-171 in the House, and the President's signature, capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.
The measure passed over the strong objection of local U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and other GOP conservatives who said it did not make sufficient reforms in the financial industry.
Pitts said the measure does not go far enough to protect taxpayers or to reform the ailing financial system.
President Bush, who lobbied hard to win congressional approval, was poised to make a statement on the historic vote later this afternoon.
Passage in the House came with bipartisan support, including both GOP and Democratic leadership.
"We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago."And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was needed to "Begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."
Stocks fluctuated on Wall Street, where there was a lot of anticipation of the vote but where investors also were buffeted by a bad report on the job market. At 3 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial average was down 21 points. The Nasdaq was up 2 points. Traders said vote came too late to make a dramatic impact on prices today.
Even before the measure cleared Congress, the White House sought to dampen optimism of any instant impact on the economy.
"This legislation is to fix a problem in our financial markets," said spokesman Tony Fratto. "It's not sold as giving a boost to the economy, but rather preventing a crisis in our economy... If it works as we hope it will, credit will be able to begin flowing again."
The House vote marked a sharp change from Monday, when an earlier measure was sent down to defeat, largely at the hands of angry conservative Republicans.
A Senate version of the bill, which added tax relief for millions of citizens and thousands of business, won approval Wednesday night, 74-25. It also included earmarks, projects targeted to win the vote of recalcitrant congress members.
Today's House vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.
Pitts, in a statement after the vote, said he was appalled by the insertion of number of pet projects onto the bill.
"Congress had an opportunity to try again this week to do this the right way. Instead, the Senate sent the House a bill full of tax breaks for special interests, unrelated provisions, and only minor improvements. Instead of earning more votes by improving the bill, the Senate bill bought votes by adding 'sweeteners,'" Pitts said.
Under the bill, groups as diverse as solar power developers, film producers, bicycle commuters and natural disaster victims would see tax relief.
In an interview Pitts, however, said none of the changes made during the past 48 hours addressed his concerns.
"This does nothing to correct the problems that got us into this mess," he said. "There are no reforms whatsoever. I frankly don't believe this is going to solve our problems.
Pitts said the bill failed to address underlying problems in the nation's financial system.
"You can ask yourself several questions: Does this bill hold those accountable who created the problems? No. Does the bill reward those who made good decisions? No. Does the bill provide reforms that brought on the problems so they don't happen again? No. Does the bill stage the bailout in a way that is most protective to taxpayers? No," Pitts said.
"Something else is going on here. I'm not sure what it is. One thing that they're talking about is these managers on Wall Street who caused a lot of the problem are going to be the ones who make billions of dollars on these auctions.
"There's a lot of coercion and intimidation trying to do this just one way, the Paulson way," he said, referring to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
