THE TEXT of a bill in the US Congress outlining an historic government bailout of financial institutions was posted on the web late Sunday afternoon and quickly mirrored at a number of Websites ahead of its anticipated quick adoption by frightened House and Senate legislators.

When the US House of Representatives servers seemed unable to handle the high volume of traffic, the left coast political bogger site The Huffington Post and government transparency outfit The Open House Project (PDF) posted copies on their websites. Public interest group The Sunlight Foundation also posted a copy of the bill on its PublicMarkUp.org website.

As the product of grueling back-room negotiations carried on over the weekend between US Congressional leaders, headed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Bush administration officials led by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the bill is expected to be passed without further debate this coming week.

It's uncertain whether there are enough votes in the House and Senate to actually pass the bill, however, as it has been heavily opposed by both prominent economists and the public, who are both taxpayers and voters in the upcoming US general elections on November 4th. µ

L'Inq
Wired