Oct. 3--WASHINGTON -- Despite the intense lobbying and pressure from party leaders, despite a load of goodies jammed into the bill, Utah's House members didn't budge on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Reps. Jim Matheson, a Democrat, and Rob Bishop, a Republican, stood against the bill when the House rejected it on Monday -- and they did so again when 58 members switched sides and passed the Bush administration proposal on Friday.

Lame duck Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, was the only member of the state's House delegation to vote in the bailout's favor.

The retooled measure passed the House on a vote of 263-171. The Senate passed it Wednesday with the support of Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. The president signed it just a few hours after the House vote.

Bishop, a Republican from Brigham City, had been on the fence about the revamped bill, which was amended to include increased federal funding for rural schools and governments and tax breaks for businesses and some individuals.

Describing the vote as "incredibly hard," today, he said, "At the end of the day, I just thought there were better things we could do."

He believes it puts too much taxpayer money at risk unnecessarily and he criticized congressional leaders for not considering any alternative ideas.

Bishop, a retired high school teacher, said he never felt comfortable voting on the bill because the rescue package was outside of his "comfort-zone of personal knowledge," though he strongly supported most of the Senate additions to the bill.

"I tried to divorce myself from the political ramifications and just do what is right. But I was never totally sure what was right," he said. "I hope it works. I hope it gives confidence to the market, which is run by rumor more than anything else."

Matheson's opposition to the bill only increased with the $110 billion in Senate additions, which he said "larded up the bill."

"But now that it's passed, we do hope it loosens the credit markets. I also hope congress is prepared to work on a more deliberative, far reaching approach to try to address the problems that we have," said Matheson, who believes Congress must pass major regulatory reform.

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