Senate set to pass U.S. recovery package

MEETING OBAMA'S DEADLINE

The House bill has more spending and less tax cuts than the scaled back Senate version. A Republican leadership aide predicted tough times in trying to agree on a final bill in the next several days. A Democratic aide said, "I think we'll do it, but it'll be a heavy lift."

Aside from the stimulus bill, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to unveil steps on Tuesday to help U.S. banks battered by the financial crisis with government insurance of bad assets, a plan to shift toxic securities off bank balance sheets and money to modify homeowner mortgages.

Obama, who took power three weeks ago, promised to work for a more cooperative atmosphere in Washington but ran up against solid Republican opposition on his first big challenge.

He and other Democrats say the Republicans drove the country into a crisis under President George W. Bush with a tax-cutting agenda that created a record federal deficit.

Democrats, on the other hand, are accused of seizing on the economic crisis to pump cash into their pet projects and a "big government" social agenda under the guise of creating jobs.

The White House itself has been vague about just what compromise it is willing to accept.

Collins and Nelson, as leaders of a group of more than a dozen moderate senators, drafted their compromise last Friday after of days of talks with top Senate Democrats and Republicans and input from the White House.