WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Senators focused their attention Wednesday on how to help the troubled U.S. housing market, beginning legislative debate after Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to come up with a bill to aid homeowners and the market.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said they're hoping to come to a consensus "quickly" to vote on the bill on the Senate floor.
A statement from Reid and McConnell said the housing package aims to help head off foreclosures, boost mortgage counseling, revamp the Federal Housing Administration and extend tax credits to homeowners.
"This is a solid, bipartisan start to keeping families facing foreclosure in their homes, helping other families avoid foreclosures in the future, and helping communities already harmed by foreclosure to recover," the senators said.
Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., are working together to come up with a bill, a Senate Banking Committee spokeswoman said.
Analysts and reports said that the bill could include a $15,000 tax credit for those who buy foreclosed homes, a $10 billion increase in the amount of mortgage-revenue bonds that states may issue for refinancing, $200 million for housing counseling and new consumer-disclosure requirements.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated that the Bush administration is willing to consider congressional plans to stem foreclosures by expanding government guarantees for mortgages, Bloomberg reported.
"I think you will continue to see flexibility as we learn and go forward," Paulson said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Beijing.
Analyst Jaret Seiberg of the Stanford Group Co. said both Democrats and Republicans saw political reasons to act.
"We believe rank-and-file Republicans feared a constituent backlash if they opposed legislation to help troubled homeowners just days after the Bush administration rescued Bear Stearns," he said in a research note.
"Democrats also realize that they need to enact legislation to help troubled borrowers or voters will hold them responsible in November," Seiberg wrote. "So we have a case where both parties need to get something done."
Meanwhile, a move to let bankruptcy judges alter the terms of some mortgages may not make the final version of the bill, reports said.
On Wednesday, a housing group called for more money from the bill to be directed to low-income people.
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