By Brandy Donaldson

After foreclosure forced his family from his childhood home years ago, U.S. Rep. Phil Hare promised his father he'd do whatever he could to spare other families that ordeal.

He said, " 'Whatever you do, make sure this doesn't happen to another family,' " Rep. Hare said Tuesday at a press conference at his Moline office.

He said that promise resonated in his mind when, on Monday, he voted in favor of a $700 billion bill to bail out the nation's ailing financial system.

The majority of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats voted against the emergency bailout bill, which was defeated in Congress 228-205 – a dozen votes shy of passing.

“I know what it does to people who lose their homes and I couldn't just sit by and watch this happen to people. I believe we should have passed this bill.”

Amidst the nation's economic crisis, millions have lost their homes and millions more will if something isn't done, Rep. Hare said.

“I wasn't enthusiastic about the bill, but at the end of the day I felt we had to do something,” he said. “We have 2 million people who are going into foreclosure here very shortly.

"It's estimated, if we do nothing, we can also have as many as 3 million people losing their jobs. We have to do something. ... The bill addressed this.This is a serious situation and I was not going to be one of these people who just sit back and do nothing.”

Rep. Hare said he wouldn't have supported an unsupervised bailout. The failed bill, he said, represented a loan that was to be paid back he said.

“Two weeks ago we were presented with a bailout plan to give the Secretary of the Treasury $700 billion. He would spend it as he saw fit with no congressional oversight,” he said.

“We were to trust him with the people's money. And I couldn't do that, because that was a bailout. But in the course of 12 days, we worked out a bill that turned this from a bailout to a loan.”

The failed legislation would have allowed the federal government to buy debt, like bad mortgages, from failing banks and financial institutions. Supporters say the plan would've helped lift the sagging national economy.

Rep. Hare was of a similar opinion, he said.“It will be too late if we choose to do nothing,” he said.

Rep. Hare will return to Washington, D.C. tomorrow, and Congress will reconvene Thursday. He said he hopes Congress can adjust the bill, agree upon it and have it ready for the Senate by the weekend.