House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) urged Congress to back a financial bailout for the struggling U.S. auto industry. Pelosi said that a car manufacturer such as General Motors Corp. is too big to be allowed to fail, but she was aware of the fact that the financial bailout will have some problems to face in the Senate and at the White House.

In her latest written statement regarding this delicate issue, Pelosi said that the failure of one of the big car makers in the United States "would have a devastating impact on our economy" and that Congress must "provide emergency and limited financial assistance." The House Speaker also said that the aid for the auto industry should be added to the Treasury Department's $700-billion economic rescue program, initially planned to stabilize the nation’s banking system. The $700-billion economic rescue program passed Congress in October.

"In order to prevent the failure of one or more of the major American automobile manufacturers ... Congress and the Bush administration must take immediate action," Pelosi said.

Pelosi didn’t give any details about the proposed financial measure. She appointed House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, one of the key figures of the Treasury program, to cooperate with the lawmakers in both chambers and finalize the measure.

The Bush administration decided that the bailout plan doesn’t allow loans to back the struggling auto industry, but the failing of a behemoth such as General Motors will have a domino effect that would see millions of people losing their jobs, Pelosi said in her statement.

Congressional Democrats along with Michigan Republicans are trying to get $25 billion out of the Treasury program in order to help the big players in the auto industry survive the economic crisis. The amount of cash would come with the same restrictions imposed on other partakers of the Treasury program. The set of restrictions includes limits on executive compensation, a ban on golden parachutes and other "taxpayer protections to ensure that any companies that benefit from this assistance bear the full burden of repaying any costs that are incurred."

The situation is quite delicate because, if the financial measure to back the auto industry passes, many other industries would most probably claim a piece of the Treasury's bailout money.

The Bush administration has rejected the attempts of Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President-elect Barack Obama, to use the broad discretion Congress granted Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson to aid the auto industry, but it did not rule out the possibility of signing a measure to include the auto industry-supporting measure in the Treasury program.

"We'll have to see what Speaker Pelosi is proposing," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Tuesday. "Right now, the . . . program is being used consistent with the law and congressional intent," Fratto said. If Congress wants to change the law, we'll see how they intend to do it."

Lawmakers will most likely begin working on the financial measure once they return to the Capitol for a post-election session that is scheduled to start next week.