US House leaders optimistic for bailout bill

By Richard Cowan and Donna Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Democratic leaders expressed optimism on Thursday that a revised $700 billion (397 billion pound) financial industry rescue bill passed by the Senate will clear the House of Representatives, which rejected the bailout earlier in the week and rocked financial markets worldwide.

"We're not going to take a bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes. I'm optimistic that we will take a bill to the floor," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat told reporters.

As congressional leaders scrambled to shore up support for the controversial plan, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters earlier on Thursday "there's a good prospect" of passing the revised bill in the House on Friday.

But he emphasized that House Republican leaders needed to deliver many more votes for the package than they did on Monday when roughly two thirds of Republicans voted against it.

Many lawmakers had turned against the plan when their offices where flooded with calls from taxpayers vehement that they should not be asked to bail out Wall Street. The House vote sent stock markets into a tailspin.

During the week, President George W. Bush and congressional leaders began making a clearer case for the need for the bailout, arguing that a widespread credit freeze was beginning to hurt consumers and businesses seeking loans.

In the Senate on Wednesday, a strong majority of both Republican and Democratic senators voted 74-25 for a revised plan sweetened with a package of tax cuts and an increase in bank deposit insurance, sending it to the House for another vote.

Now lawmakers said they see public sentiment shifting somewhat more in favour of the controversial bill.