Topeka ? The Kansas congressional delegation should support development of a relief package for the nation’s struggling automobile manufacturers, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.

“At this time of serious economic downturn,” Sebelius said, “it would be a disaster to our state and our country to lose American auto jobs.”

More than 60,000 jobs in Kansas were tied to the survival of Detroit’s Big Three car builders, Sebelius said.

The House approved a $14 billion package of aid formulated by Democrats and the White House, but the Senate blocked action on the deal.

The Kansas delegation was evenly split on the federal bailout. Democratic Reps. Nancy Boyda and Dennis Moore voted for the House plan, while GOP Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt voted against it.

Tiahrt said he voted against the deal negotiated by the White House and Democratic leaders because “we keep passing bailout after bailout without fundamental reforms to help American workers and businesses achieve long-term prosperity.”

In the Senate, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., voted to close the door on the automobile company legislation. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., voted to keep debating various plans to help the industry.

Brownback, of Topeka, said some form of federal intervention was needed to prevent car manufacturers from filing for bankruptcy. That kind of economic calamity would directly harm Kansas car dealers, workers at the Goodyear plant in Topeka and employees at the General Motors assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., he said.

“This is more than just assistance to a vital industry with needed capital,” Brownback said. “This is also about saving the taxpayers billions of dollars in future expenditures if one or more of the car companies go into bankruptcy.”

Sebelius said she didn’t appreciate that some Republicans blamed the United Automobile Workers for failure of the bill because the union declined to embrace 2009 wage concessions.

“The strategy of blaming the workers for the auto companies’ failure, and allowing hundreds of thousands of American jobs to be lost, including jobs here in Kansas, will cause further harm to the Kansas economy,” Sebelius said.