By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Left with staggering losses after the Sept. 11 attacks, the nation's airlines lobbied with jetliner speed to win a $15 billion relief package only 10 days after the terrorist strikes grounded all passenger aircraft.

Top executives from a fiercely competitive industry joined with influential lobbyists to win the bailout by large bipartisan margins. Among those helping was lobbyist Linda Hall Daschle, wife of Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle.

"This was a very bittersweet accomplishment in getting this financial rescue package enacted into law," said Linda Daschle, a lobbyist for two airlines who has worked on aviation issues for 25 years. "It was legislation none of us would ever have dreamed to have the need to seek."

The legislation passed Sept. 21 with support from President Bush and lawmakers from both parties. The House's vote was 356-54, the Senate's 96-1.

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., who cast the lone vote against the bill, said, "We will never again see such a high-pressure campaign to shovel taxpayer money to private industry. They (airline lobbyists) were in immediately after the events of Sept. 11 ... getting commitments from Capitol Hill."

Fitzgerald said he believed $15 billion was far too much to give the airlines. He said Congress bailed out stockholders while leaving out any aid for thousands of workers laid off after the attacks. The failure to include benefits for workers also came in for major criticism during the House debate.

Mrs. Daschle, once a top federal aviation official, said she did not lobby the Senate in her work for American Airlines and Northwest Airlines but did speak with members and staff of the House Transportation Committee.

Senate ethics rules caution that lobbying in the Senate by spouses could reflect unfavorably upon the legislative body. The rules do not prohibit the activity, however, and are silent on spouses lobbying House members.

Mrs. Daschle said she lobbied not only for the bailout but for her efforts to create a federal corporation to handle aviation security. Her lobbying for the security system began before the attacks but the effort intensified afterward, she said.

Michael Wascom, spokesman for the airline industry trade group, the Air Transport Association, said it was the chief executive officers of 22 U.S. carriers who carried the most influence.

"They stuck together like never before," he said of the normally competitive executives. "We could not allow the industry to fail. The hemorrhage had to be stopped."

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On the Net: Air Transport Association:

http://www.air-transport.org/Default2.asp