As a vote on an auto bailout measure was canceled on the Senate floor Wednesday, several members of the Colorado congressional delegation thought they might see another version of it down the line.

But U.S. Rep.-elect Jared Polis said that even if one did show up in January, he was cool to the idea.

"I'm generally skeptical of these individual bailouts," Polis said. "I think there may be more effective ways to use $25 billion in bailout money."

He said one of the key proposals he'd like to see is using money from a stimulus package to retrain autoworkers in different lines of work if they lost their jobs because Detroit's Big Three - General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - couldn't make it in 2009.

Sen. Ken Salazar said if there is bailout money to be doled out to the car companies, there has to be a change in the status quo.

"I believe any kind of federal governmental assistance to Detroit requires a transformation of Detroit," he said.

The wrangling in Washington over bailing out the American auto industry appears to have put Congress in an uncomfortable position of wanting to respect taxpayers' disapproval of a bailout plan while trying to avoid catastrophic job losses if any or all three companies go bankrupt.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter said some blame lies at the feet of the automakers in Detroit, but he also said they are victims of a crushing economic climate that has seen rising unemployment, a frozen credit market and the Dow Jones slipping below 8,000 points for the first time since 2003.

"You have to consider the human impact side in relation to how fragile the economy is right now," Perlmutter said. "With the number of jobs being lost right now, or that could be lost - it's really uncharted waters right now."

Perlmutter fears a domino effect rippling down from Detroit to Denver - affecting everyone from car dealerships to parts suppliers.

Sen.-elect Mark Udall, who is still serving out his term in the House, said companies like GM didn't look forward and adapt to potential changes in the car-buying climate.

"As we all recall, gasoline prices suddenly shot up to record levels, and the market for the companies' biggest, most profitable vehicles - which had already been shrinking - collapsed," Udall said.

Sen. Wayne Allard, who will be leaving the Senate, said that before any legislation is passed, there needs to be more information from the automakers.

"We need to have more hearings," Allard said. "We need to more thoroughly understand this. And we need to hear from more than just the three (U.S.) carmakers. We need to hear from the other . . . carmakers. It would be a good idea to get them in here and hear what they have to say."