Bush and Congress reach tentative agreement on bailout

U.S. lawmakers and the Bush administration have reached a tentative agreement on a plan to bailout endangered financial institutions. Key House and Senate negotiators, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made the announcement early Sunday after around-the-clock negotiations. Looking tired but pleased, House and Senate leaders, along with other key lawmakers walked to a microphone in the Capitol to announce they have an agreement they believe will rescue the financial markets and protect Americans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, 'We have made great progress. We have to get it committed to paper so we can formally agree.' Saying their congressional staffs would work through the early hours of Sunday to put final words on paper, lawmakers turned to Secretary Paulson, who said, 'We begin with a very important task, a task to stabilize the markets, to protect all Americans and do it in a way which protects the taxpayer to the maximum extent possible.' The original Bush administration proposal was for an estimated $700 billion plan to purchase troubled assets from imperiled financial institutions in order to prevent a collapse of the U.S. credit markets. But lawmakers balked after a wave of public complaints and media reaction about the size of the proposal. They demanded more oversight and other measures. Last week, despite an initial announcement of an agreement on basic principles, Republicans in the House of Representatives insisted on other changes. House Republican whip Roy Blunt said he believes an agreement can be announced later Sunday, but his remarks were a bit more tentative than others. 'We will be looking at the final wording of this, talking to my colleagues.' Details are expected later Sunday, and lawmakers would provide no specifics. Barney Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said the tentative deal 'includes genuine compromise, an idea originally proposed by the Bush Administration and then subject to a process in which other points and values were added to it.' U.S. presidential politics became caught up in the negotiations last week when Republican candidate John McCain called for postponement of the first presidential debate with Democrat Barack Obama. Democrats accused McCain of using the financial crisis to increase his credibility on economic issues, while Republicans came to his defense. The debate went ahead after the two men attended an extraordinary meeting at the White House with President Bush, who was pushing lawmakers for an agreement.