WASHINGTON — Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he received two phone calls this week from Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, who was in Germany meeting with auto parts suppliers interested in locating near the planned Volkswagen assembly plant at Enterprise South.

With Congress getting set to vote on a $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, auto suppliers were anxious to see whether the U.S. credit crisis would get resolved, the mayor told Rep. Wamp.

“It’s not that the Volkswagen deal is going to be jeopardized, but they need to know that the American economy is going to strong enough to sell Volkswagen cars in our country,” Rep. Wamp said.

The congressman voted Friday in favor of the bill, which passed the House, 263-171, after having voted against the bill on Monday.

DEAL DISAGREES WITH SENATORS ON bAILOUT

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., was a “no” vote both Monday and Friday, unlike both Georgia senators, who voted for the bill as it passed the Senate on Wednesday, 74-25.

While Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both R-Ga., issued a joint statement applauding the bill’s passage, saying “we could not simply turn a blind eye (to the financial crisis) and hope for the best,” Rep. Deal said his conservative constituents in his Northwest Georgia district back his protest vote.

“Even (the senators) have to concede that in terms of public support, it wasn’t there,” Rep. Deal said. “In districts like mine that tend to be more conservative than the state as a whole, you can imagine that my constituents were magnified even more on the side of not favoring this proposal.”

CORKER: TAX PACKAGE UNNECESSARY ADD-IN

The bailout package also contained several tax relief measures intended to attract more support from resistant House Republicans, but Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he wishes they had not been attached to the bill.

The tax measures included a provision to allow residents of states without an income tax, such as Tennessee, to deduct their sales tax from their federal returns. They also included incentives for alternative energy investment and raises the income threshold for the Alternative Minimum Tax.

“It gives the impression that the reason people are voting for this is because of all these Christmas tree things,” Sen. Corker said. “The rescue package would have passed by the same vote, and by attaching the (tax) package to it, which also would have passed, it confuses the public.”

GOVERNMENT COULD SEE PROFIT FROM BILL

Sen. Corker added that he supported the bailout bill, unlike the economic stimulus plan passed earlier this year, because it was not a handout but an investment of government money with the potential for a return.

The stimulus plan involved rebate checks of up to $600 for individuals, and Sen. Corker was one of 12 senators to vote against it.

The bailout plan involves the federal government purchasing mortgage securities from ailing financial firms.

“Under that stimulus, they sent out the money and it was gone,” Sen. Corker said. “It was spent money. In this case, they are purchasing assets and if they do it properly, taxpayers will get all of their money back plus a yield on top of that.”

Compiled by Washington correspondent Herman Wang