Mississippi U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R) announces his opposition to the auto industry bailout plan currently being debated in Congress.

Wicker made the following statement regarding the $25 billion bailout package for the big three U.S. automakers: 

“I opposed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout seven weeks ago in part because I didn’t think it did anything to get to the root of the problem. Now, Senate Democrats want to tap into those funds to provide $25 billion to struggling U.S. automakers while ignoring the companies’ competitiveness issues that have continually plagued them."

He added, "The Big Three automakers were in financial trouble before our economy slowed down. To provide a $25 billion bailout for some companies isn’t fair to taxpayers or the American businesses that have made smart decisions, nor is it good government policy.”

According to various reports, the bailout plan is far from passage. Congressional Democrats have said they'll will wait until December and demand a business plan from automakers before voting on a package.

The idea of the plan was to use funds from the $700 billion Wall Street rescue bill for automaker loans. Republicans and the Bush administration have been accepting of the Democrats' plan to dip into that money.