WASHINGTON -- Republican president candidate John McCain joined his Democratic rival Barack Obama in supporting efforts to give Detroit's Big Three automakers up to $25 billion in loan guarantees -- a move that boosts the prospects for passage considerably in September.

 

Obama said in July he would support the effort to fund low-cost loans for automakers to retool their plants. It would cost $3.75 billion to fund the program known as the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing initiative. Congress approved the $25 billion program over five years in the energy bill passed in December but didn't authorize any money to fund it.

 

'Our auto companies are rising to the challenge building the next generation of American cars, but are doing so in times when credit conditions cripple the funding for the facilities and technologies to take the steps to the future,' McCain said in a statement. 'Washington has stepped in to help Wall Street face these conditions, and did pass the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program to provide low-cost loans. But Congress has also failed to fund it. I believe we should fund it and take action that will assist Detroit and its suppliers in making it through this difficult time of transition.'