Bailout fails key House vote

Updated 1:56 p.m. with the votes of Tennessee's members of Congress
Stocks plunged by hundreds of points as defeat becomes clear

Email | Print By E. Thomas Wood

09-29-2008 12:48 PM — Update 4:25 p.m. – Despite a late mini-bounce, the main stock indices finished near their lows of the day, with the Dow down 777 points or 7 percent and both the S&P and the Nasdaq off about 9 percent.

Update 1:56 p.m. – Tennessee's congressional delegation voted as follows on the bailout plan:

Yes: Democrats Jim Cooper, John Tanner, Steve Cohen and Bart Gordon.

No: Democrat Lincoln Davis; Republicans David Davis, Zach Wamp, Marsha Blackburn and Jimmy Duncan.

Update 1:21 p.m. – Voting has now closed, and the plan has been defeated.

As originally filed:

The House of Representatives today appeared to vote down the $700 billion financial bailout plan that the Bush administration and congressional leaders have been negotiating for more than a week.

A majority of Republicans voted against the bill, a majority of Democrats in favor.

As the voting period expired, the tally stood at 226 votes against the bill, 207 votes for it. House leaders have held open the vote in the hope of convincing some lawmakers to switch sides.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 500 points, or almost 5 percent, from its opening level as the plan's failure became clear. At about 1:15 p.m., both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices were down about 6 percent.