Despite the changes made during an intense week of negotiations, the heart of the program remains Bush's original idea:
To have the government spend billions of dollars to buy mortgage-backed securities whose value has plummeted as hundreds of thousands of Americans have defaulted on their home loans
Money for the rescue plan would be phased in, he said.
The first $350 billion would be available as soon as the president requested it.
Congress could try to block later amounts if it believed the program was not working.
The president could veto such a move, however, requiring extra large margins in the House and Senate to override.
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