Obama Seeks TARP's Remaining $350 Billion

By Andrew Taylor and Philip Elliott

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leaders said a vote could come as early as this week on providing a second $350 billion for the financial industry, after assurances Sunday by President-elect Barack Obama and one of his top economic advisers that the money would be better monitored and spent.

The Bush administration and the incoming Obama team have undertaken a tag-team effort to obtain the money from reluctant lawmakers, to have it waiting for Obama when he's sworn in Jan. 20.

President Bush would request the additional money for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, but the incoming administration would allocate it. Obama's economic adviser, Larry Summers, briefed lawmakers Sunday on the bailout and on the incoming administration's plan for roughly $800 billion in spending and tax breaks to spur the economy.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said Sunday that lawmakers were assured there would be fuller accounting of the money spent on the bailout. Banks and other financial institutions have received billions from the government with few rules, and most won't say where the money has gone.

Obama, in a taped interview aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week," promised to see that more money goes directly to distressed homeowners. "When you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families ... we haven't done enough," he said.

"Larry Summers made a very strong argument for why it's important and critical for the overall recovery," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "And I think that's an argument that most senators understand."