Early this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve (291-in-favor, 27-against) a stopgap funding bill that cuts $1.5 billion from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program.
Republicans narrowly won support of a bill that funds government operations for six weeks and sends $3.7 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster relief program at the expense of advanced automotive technology loans. Six Democrats voted in favor of the bill; 17 Republicans opposed it.
Democrats opposed the bill’s cutting of $1.5 billion of the remaining $4 billion in the DOE’s AVTM program and warn that at least ten loan applicants could be in jeopardy of losing out, including Chrysler with its pending $3.5-billion application.
To date, the AVTM program has awarded $9.2 billion in loans to six automakers, including Ford, Nissan, Fisker and Tesla.
