Obama promises changes in use of bailout billions

A vote in Congress is likely soon, possibly this week, several senators said after a briefing from Summers Sunday on the Wall Street bailout, as well as on Obama's separate plan for roughly $800 billion more in spending and tax breaks to spur the economy.

At his news conference, Bush said, "I readily concede I chucked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression."

But he credited the program so far with improving the credit environment, saying that "lending is just beginning to pick up."

Congress approved the program in October, authorizing $700 billion to assist the financial industry.

The current administration has already committed the first $350 billion, using it to inject capital into banks and to bail out ailing financial companies considered too big to fail without further damage to the economy. A small portion of the money has gone to automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the administration's handling of the fund, in part because the financial institutions that have received the unconditional sums of money have done little to account for it.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson originally promised the money would be used to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities whose falling values have clogged credit markets and brought many financial institutions to the brink of failure.