He also said congressional leaders believe Chrysler needs to combine with another automaker. 'Chrysler, is, I think, basically gone, probably ought to be merged,' Dodd said. GM immediately expressed its support for the company's embattled chief executive. 'While we appreciate Senator Dodd's efforts on behalf of the U.S. auto industry, the employees of General Motors, its dealers, its suppliers and its Board of Directors all support Rick Wagoner and are confident he is the person to lead GM through these difficult times,' GM spokesman Steve Harris said in a statement. Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which twice held hearings in recent weeks on a possible auto bailout during which Wagoner and the CEOs of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler faced sharp questioning and criticism from lawmakers. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, said Sunday that Congress and the White House 'are very close to a deal' to provide loans to the ailing industry, but it's unclear whether there are enough votes in Congress to pass such a bill. 'I'm very confident there will be a deal and that will happen within the next 24 hours,' Levin said on 'Fox News Sunday.' But asked if the votes are there to pass such a deal, Levin said, 'That's a much more complicated question.' In an interview with The Detroit News, Levin said he expected to see a draft of the bill by Monday, with a Senate vote on Wednesday. He also said he thought the decision of whether the automakers need new leadership should be left up to a government administrator or to shareholders, not Congress. The emergency aid will help 'carve out a leaner and greener industry,' Levin said. More restructuring will result in additional pain, but the alternative would be far, far worse, he said. In a separate interview with the News, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said congressional Democrats had firm commitments for about half of the 12 Senate Republican votes they need. She said lawmakers were still negotiating over what provisions were necessary to win enough GOP support. Levin said the key to winning passage is getting both President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama to endorse the compromise. 'I think a lot will determine on how strongly they weigh in,' Levin said. 'It's really important for the president-elect to take a position when it is finally drafted in the next 24 hours.' Environmentalists remain angry that the funds will come from an Energy Department retooling program that was originally intended to fund new advanced technology projects. Opposition to using that money had blocked a deal for weeks, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., among those against tapping the Energy Department funds. She has said the money will be replenished early next year to the $25 billion Energy Department program. 'Walking away from a commitment to greater fuel efficiency isn't in America's or Detroit's larger, longer-term interests,' said Phyllis Cuttino, Director of the U.S. Global Warming Campaign for the Pew Environment Group. 'If the fuel efficiency funds set aside in last year's historic energy bill are used to bailout the Big Three, the next Congress and the new Obama Administration must immediately replenish them.' Any federal aid will come with significant conditions. Congressional leaders said Sunday the $15 billion in short-term aid was hung up on the structure of government oversight and what other conditions to attach. The White House on Friday proposed the creation of a 'Financial Viability Advisor' who could award emergency loans to automakers and have legal authority to ensure the companies take significant restructuring steps. Stabenow said that person -- or a 'trustee' -- will likely be the Treasury Secretary or his designee. 'It's the quickest way to get financial support' to automakers,' she said. Levin said the administrator could also be housed in the Commerce Department. Democrats wanted input on who would be named as a 'car czar' but appear to be dropping that; President-elect Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary will take over in 45 days. Obama said in an interview Sunday that automakers couldn't be allowed to collapse, but said they had to take tough steps. 'What we have to do is to provide them with assistance but that assistance is conditioned on them making significant adjustments. They are going to have to restructure and all of their stakeholders are going to have to restructure,' Obama said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Automakers have sought $34 billion in emergency loans and lines of credit. GM says it needs $4 billion by the end of the month to survive through Jan. 31, while Chrysler needs $4 billion to survive through March 31. GM says it needs $10 billion to $15 billion in total to survive through March 31. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need immediate aid but wants access to a $9 billion line of credit to tap if the economy worsens. Automakers will have to agree to strict limits on executive compensation and bonuses, a bar on the use of loans to pay for dividends and would have to give the government stock warrants in exchange for loans, Stabenow said. The government would also be a 'first-tier lien holder' in the event automakers can't pay their loans back. Another issue is whether automakers' would be able to use government funds received to continue a series of lawsuits challenging California and 13 other states' effort to impose a 30 percent cut in vehicle emissions by 2016. Automakers told a House committee on Friday they would agree not to use any government funds received to specifically continue lawsuits -- though they could use other money Stabenow noted that a compromise bill introduced last month would have barred automakers from using government funds for lobbying, so it is possible that could be extended to lawsuits. Opposition remains to any kind of aid program. Levin appeared on Fox News Sunday with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and a leading critic of any federal bailout of the car companies. 'I think this is a bridge loan to nowhere. This is a down payment on many billions to come,' said Shelby, who said the Detroit Big Three's woes are their own fault. 'They've got to compete,' he said. 'They can't compete.' Congressional leaders announced late Friday that they were working with the White House to provide about $15 billion in loans to the domestic carmakers. An agreement suddenly became possible amid deep concerns about massive new job losses after it was reported Friday that the country lost more than $500,000 jobs in November. Also, Pelosi on Friday withdrew her opposition to using money previously set aside to help the companies build more fuel-efficient cars. Congress is likely to vote sometime this week, but time is short as members are eager to return home for the holidays. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Saturday the talks remained 'constructive.' The White House said 'that taxpayer assistance (should) only be considered for companies willing to make the difficult decisions across the scope of their businesses to be viable and competitive in the future.' Detroit automakers are likely to get aid in exchange for significant restructuring, including winning concessions from shareholders, debtholders and the United Auto Workers, which is owed about $35 billion by automakers starting next year to fund a union-run retiree health care trust to pay for hourly retirees health care costs. GM owes about $21 billion, including a $7 billion payment next year. The bill isn't likely to specify the precise contribution of stockholders, bond holders and the UAW, Stabenow said. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that the union agreed to delay the timing of the payments into the health care trust and has been making repeated concessions since 2005. But many in Congress want the UAW to take less or accept some of those payments in stock rather than cash, concessions the union hasn't been willing to make. Without action by Congress, Gettelfinger said he fears 'a collapse of General Motors and possibly Chrysler.' He said the union was 'hopeful' a deal would get done. Even with aid, automakers will face difficult decisions and sharply declining auto sales. Auto sales fell 37 percent in November and GM's Wagoner said last week that sales could fall so far in January that the automaker could have to cut production by 50 percent over 2008 levels. Obama was sharply critical of the companies' management, suggested their executives are paid too much and said the companies must be much more realistic about the size of the auto market and what kind of cars they need to build to be successful. 'Labor, management, shareholders, creditors, everybody is going to have to understand they do not have a sustainable business model right now, and if they expect the taxpayers to help in that adjustment process, then they can't keep putting off the kind of changes they should have been making 20, 30 years ago,' Obama said. Obama said little about the current negotiations to give the companies short-term aid to keep them alive until he takes office Jan. 20. Those plans would likely leave to Obama's administration any longer-term plan for revitalizing the industry, and Obama suggested his advisers are already thinking about what that long-term plan might look like. 'I hope we're going to see some short-term progress in the next few days,' Obama said. 'My economic team is focused on what we expect to inherit on January 20, and we'll have some very specific plans on how to move that forward.' Obama hinted that any such plans might require even more radical restructuring than the massive job cuts, brand eliminations and factory closings that the automakers proposed in the plans they submitted to Congress last week. 'In fairness you have seen some progress made, incrementally, in many of these companies,' he said. 'They have been building better cars now than they were 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. They are making some investments in the kind of green technologies, new batteries that would allow us to create plug-in hybrids.' But he was sharply critical of much of the automakers' history. 'What we haven't seen is a sense of urgency and the willingness to make tough decisions, and what we still see is executive compensation packages for the auto industry that are out of line compared to a lot of their competitors, their Japanese competitors, that are doing a lot better,' Obama said. You can reach David Shepardson at (202) 662 - 8735 or dshepardsondteom.