Between campaign stops and trying to help fix the financial crisis, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson managed to receive a somewhat surprising endorsement - Esquire, the New York-based national magazine, ranked him in the top 10 members of Congress.

"It's got Halle Berry on the cover. I might send it to her to autograph," he joked Wednesday in a meeting with the Times-News editorial board.

Simpson, 58, is seeking his sixth term in the House, and faces Democratic challenger Deborah Holmes in the Nov. 4 general election for the House of Representatives. Republican Gregory Nemitz, who lost to Simpson in the primary, is running as a write-in candidate. Simpson traveled to Washington on Monday for hearings regarding the financial crisis.

He defended his vote on the $700 billion federal rescue plan, a package some have criticized as covering for mistakes made by investors and banks. But Simpson said it will soften the downturn in the economy and the government will make back the money.

He said he has concerns about how the money is used - $250 billion was just injected into banks - but there is oversight and taxpayer protection.

"They haven't yet seen between the relationship of what happens on Main Street and what happens on Wall Street and what happens on the side street and everywhere else," Simpson said of critics. "It's gonna hit and it's gonna be pretty hard."

Still, he said he doesn't understand why Congress opted for non-voting shares when investing in the banks.

"In the 1930s, when they did that, they bought voting shares. The argument you hear from Treasury is 'we don't want to control the banks, we don't want to get in there and make the management decisions,'" he said. "Excuse me, we're putting how much money into these banks? I want a vote."

Simpson voted against the stimulus bill earlier this year, and he's undecided about the second one being discussed. He wants a bill that improves infrastructure - a move that he said would create jobs, improve transportation systems and provide a long-term spike to the economy.

"If you look back at what that $600 check did, it had a one-month bump in the economy," he said. "That's not an economic stimulus to me. To me you do something long-term."

Simpson, who sits on the appropriations committee, predicted more regulation but cautioned against too much.

"My fear is that, based on Congress's history - or government in general - we will over-regulate. I've seen it happen with campaign finance reform. I saw it happen when Enron went down," he said.

Elsewhere, Simpson is confident the federal sugar subsidy program will remain intact, despite the opposition from both presidential candidates. He predicted no changes for at least five years until a new farm bill is written because there's enough Congressional support.

Simpson has pushed for more public land preservation, although his biggest effort - the Boulder-White Clouds bill - remains stalled. He said the Democratic environmentalist base is split on it.

"I think we've addressed every concern that the Democratic staff had," he said. "Now it's a matter of whether they want to do it."

He also said the Idaho National Laboratory operating under a Barack Obama administration "scares" him because Obama says he supports nuclear power but hasn't supported opening Yucca Mountain. He also wants the country to reverse its ban on reprocessing nuclear fuel.

Jared S. Hopkins may be reached at 208-735-3204 or jhopkins@magicvalley.com.