Cash for Clunkers Gets $2 Billion More

Tonight, the U.S. Senate passed an extension for the popular Cash for Clunkers legislation that will allow roughly 500,000 more vehicles to be purchased under the current rules. The original expiration date of Nov. 1 still stands if the $2 billion doesn’t run out before then.

The program started to run out of money quickly after its official launch July 27; as of today, there was roughly $100 million left of the original $1 billion. The House passed the additional funding last week. If the Senate hadn’t also done so without amendment, the program would likely have wound down this weekend.

We’ll have a further update in the morning.