Senate Agrees with $2B Cash for Clunkers Extension

The United States Senate finally reached a long-awaited deal on extending the Cash for Clunkers scheme late Wednesday. Democrats and Republicans will vote on the plan on Thursday which will bring an extra $2 billion to the scrapping incentive that brought new car sales of 185,000 units in almost two weeks. However, the new bill will come with several modifications, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted as saying by AP, but specific details on the changes will be revealed today.

President Barack Obama warned that the initial $1 billion package might be spent until Friday and urged the senators to approve the extra funds. No less than $775 million of the $1 billion have been spent, official sources revealed, with Americans buying a total of 185,000 cars through the scheme. The $2 billion package is expected to fund another 500,000 vehicle sales, administration officials have been quoted as saying by AP.

According to first figures on the scheme, the Detroit Three accounted for 45.3 percent of all CARS sales, with General Motors taking the lion's share - 18.7 percent of new sales. Toyota came second with 17.9 percent while Ford was third with 16 percent of all sales.

"I think if it doesn't happen this week, it's unlikely that we'll make it to the weekend with a program that can continue," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on August 3.

"If we don't get the $2 billion from the Senate ... we would have to suspend the program next week. We will continue the program until we see what the Senate does, and I believe the Senate will pass this," US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood added.