By Joseph J. Schatz, Benton Ives and Phil Mattingly, CQ Staff

The “Big Three” domestic automakers will take center stage on Capitol Hill next week as House Democrats push ahead with plans to give the ailing auto industry a $25 billion share of the Treasury Department’s financial bailout program despite ongoing reluctance from the Bush administration and signs that the plan may face a fight on the Senate floor.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a key Republican conservative, said Wednesday that he will oppose the bill, and an aide said the senator is preparing amendments. DeMint and other conservatives could stall the measure in a chamber that remains narrowly divided until new senators are sworn in next year.

“This is what happens when you bail out one industry: five more get in line. Some auto manufacturers are struggling because of a bad business structure with high unionized labor costs and burdensome federal regulations,” DeMint said in a statement. “Taxpayers did not create these problems and they should not be forced to pay for them.”

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank , D-Mass., is drafting the legislation and said he will hold a hearing on the automakers’ plight Nov. 19. Frank said he expected President Bush, who has been reluctant to back the Democratic plan, to sign the legislation if Congress clears it.

“The consequences of a collapse of the American automobile industry would be particularly troubling,” Frank said. “If we could wait we wouldn’t have to do it next week.”

At the moment, Democrats appear to be on a collision course with the White House over the issue — and seem to be daring President Bush to acquiesce or preside over the possible demise of American car manufacturing giant General Motors Corp. during his final days in office. But it remains unclear how Democratic leaders will proceed.

While the Senate will be in session next week for a post-election lame duck session, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., has not yet formally called House members back to Washington, telling them that a decision will be made late this week. Pelosi has said she wants the president to commit to signing an economic stimulus package and the auto industry assistance — both of which the administration has been resisting — before the House acts.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said that the auto legislation could move independently of a stimulus package. The Bush administration, for its part, wants Congress to act on a trade agreement with Colombia, but Democrats appear dead set against that idea.

While the Big Three legislation is likely to garner support from many lawmakers, it also amounts to a reopening of the enormously controversial and hard-fought bailout program (PL 110-343) that congressional leaders rushed through last month. That could mean obstacles on the Senate floor.

Paulson: Look Elsewhere

At a news conference updating the status of Treasury’s $700 billion financial-industry rescue, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. called automobile manufacturing a “critical industry” and agreed the industry needs help. But he said the Treasury program probably was not the place to find it.

“We need a solution, but the solution has got to be one that leads to viability,” Paulson said. “The intent of the TARP was to deal with the financial industry.”

Instead, Paulson suggested Detroit look to $25 billion in loans activated by Congress (PL 110-329) in September, and said the administration was open go congressional changes to the program, which is being run out of the Energy Department.