The federal government may get its first check paying back some of the money is loaned to bail out the U.S. auto industry, just in time for Christmas.

The Washington Post reports, “General Motors is expected to announce on Monday that it will begin repaying its debt to the United States next month, years earlier than required.”  An unidentified “source familiar with the matter” tells the Post that “The nation's largest automaker plans to pay $1 billion per quarter until the $6.7 billion loan is repaid.” 

The Detroit News adds, “GM will make payments of about $1 billion every quarter, at least until the second half of 2010, the earliest that it plans an initial public stock offering.”  The company’s board would be required to re-examine debt payments as a part of any public offering, so it can’t commit now to a payment schedule that would apply after going public.  The News notes, “GM also will make $200 million quarterly payments to the Canadian national and Ontario provincial governments against its $1.4 billion debt” to them.

The government ultimately lent GM much more than $6.7 billion.  The New York Times notes, “Of G.M.’s bailout package, an initial $13.4 billion was money made available, with strict conditions, in December by the Bush administration under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. G.M. received about $6 billion more in working capital from the Obama administration in April and May, and was given $30.1 billion in bankruptcy financing and postbankruptcy restructuring money.” 

Most of the money was not considered a loan, Reuters explains, but instead was given in exchange for “a 61 percent equity stake in the automaker.”  The government could attempt to recoup those costs through selling off its share of GM after any public offering, but Reuters notes, “A congressional oversight panel [has] said the government was unlikely to recover all of the financing it provided GM.”

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.