WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pledged to get the $700 billion financial rescue program up and going quickly.

Paulson declined to answer reporters' questions about how the auction program will work, but he said he already has Treasury staffers working on those details so it won't be delayed.

President Bush signed the legislation Friday shortly after Paulson spoke.

“It was a vote to protect the American people, to protect their jobs, their economic well being,” Paulson said minutes after House approval of the bill. He would not say how the government would go about purchasing troubled assets from financial companies.

“There are a wide variety of tools that we have, that come with this legislation,” he said, which will complement regulatory authority the government already has.

Taken together, the new powers and the existing authority will “be very important in protecting the stability of the financial markets,” necessary to provide economic security for the public, Paulson said.

Paulson refused to say whether he expected the first Treasury purchases to occur before the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Paulson said that even before the House passed the measure on Friday “we have been doing a lot of work, a lot of thinking getting ready for this. Once the legislation is signed, we will be going out and lining up some advisers from the private sector.”