The crisis in the financial markets of course had an influence. As soon as it received the bill from the Bush administration, the Senate’s banking and financial services committees began looking into it on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House of Representatives and the Senate held hearings with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. Bush administration officials met with individual lawmakers to explain the urgency of the situation and to seek their cooperation. Senator Christopher Dodd even came up with and proposed a 44-page revised bill, saying he wasn’t satisfied with the three-page financial rescue bill the Department of Treasury had presented to the Senate.

Congress demanded the inclusion of measures to protect homeowners who faced foreclosures due to their inability to service their mortgage. Also to be included in the bill are measures to strengthen congressional regulation of the transparency of financial bailout spending, while capping the annual salaries of CEOs at financial institutions receiving taxpayer’s money.

Congress recognized an exemption clause that keeps presidential officials from facing trials or audits on a retroactive basis. Lawmakers had made it clear that officials will not be held accountable later for actions taken to put out raging fires. The Democrat-led Congress has given the Republican administration the authority to deal with the financial crisis with conviction.

Even though the Republican and Democratic parties will bet everything and compete head-on in presidential elections in seven weeks, they are going beyond party lines and pooling their strengths to overcome a national crisis. Now look at our National Assembly, which remained closed for months while the entire country was in disorder due to the mad cow hysteria.