Vermont's Senators split over the $700 bailout bill Wednesday, as Patrick Leahy (D-Middlesex) and Bernie Sanders (I-Burlington) cast opposite votes for the legislation, which ultimately passed by a resounding 49 votes.

Leahy, the Green Mountain State's senior senator, voted for the bailout bill, while Sanders, one of two Independents in the Senate, voted against it.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy emphasized the importance of judicial oversight in the final draft of the bill prior to its passage.

"From the very moment I received the administration's proposal, I have objected to any measure that strips the courts from playing their indispensible role as a check on executive power," Leahy said in a statement Wednesday. "It was of utmost importance to me to see that judicial review has been maintained in the version that we will be considering in light of the authority this legislation will give to the Treasury Secretary."

Sanders, who has been an adamant opponent of the legislation, gave a rousing speech on the Senate floor just minutes before the final vote. Sanders flipped through photos of CEOs who had received millions of dollars in compensation and waved a stack of papers containing the thousands and thousands of people's names who had signed his petition to include an amendment that would impose a 10 percent surtax on individuals making more than $500,000 or couples making more than $1 million.

"Vermonters and people across America are saying very clearly that this bailout is a bad idea and that the struggling middle class should not have to pay for the greed and excesses of Wall Street," Sanders said in a statement Wednesday.

The bailout legislation got 14 more ‘yes' votes than it needed for a 60-vote supermajority.

On Monday, U.S. Representatives voted down an earlier version of the legislation.