The Treasury Department announced a program today to helps America's auto sector. Its attempt to stabilize the imperiled auto industry will now involve $5 billion in payments to suppliers for products shipped to the auto companies. The $5 billion comes from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a fund that was set up to save the economy by bailing out banks and other financial institutions.

"As rising unemployment and contracting credit continue to threaten economic recovery, today's announcement will support an industry employing more than 500,000 American workers across the country," Treasury said.

However, according to an unnamed member of the Obama administration, this $5 billion bailout should not be taken as a sign to give futher support to GM and Chrysler, who have already received $17.4 billion in loans and are asking for $21.6 billion more.

This program was implemented sooner than any other additional support because suppliers needed help before anybody else. Before a decision is made to help GM and Chrysler, the Treasury Department had to make sure that they wouldn't run out of money or stop operations before a bigger decision about the companies

"Unlike GM and Chrysler, they have yet to receive any help at all from the government, even though they are suffering from some of the same problems," said the task force member. "As we've been doing our work, it became clear to us that addressing this particular problem is of great urgency."