Congressional negotiators late yesterday (Thursday) reached a tentative agreement on a credit-crisis compromise that gives the Bush administration about a third of the $700 billion it has requested up front, but made sure half that outlay was subject to a congressional veto, published reports state.

Details remained sketchy late yesterday. However, this much is known. Under the plan – known as the “Troubled Assets Rescue Plan,” or TARP – U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. “Hank” Paulson Jr. would get an immediate $250 billion to begin bailout operations, and could obtain an additional $100 billion if needed. The final installment of $350 billion could be blocked by a Congressional vote.

TARP is designed to give lawmakers a controlling stake in the unprecedented credit-crisis bailout plan, industry sources and The Associated Press both reported. Money Morning Contributing Editor R. Shah Gilani – a former hedge-fund manager and currency trader who this week proposed an alternate plan that wouldn’t burden taxpayers with billions in federal debt – said it will be tough to evaluate TARP until all the details are known.

But he clearly didn’t have strongly positive feelings about either Paulson’s original plan or the revised TARP proposal put forth by congressional negotiators late yesterday.

“Commenting on what’s under the TARP [proposal] is like asking if there’s a Hell below us,” Gilani said in an interview late yesterday. “We won’t know until we get there.”

Anatomy of a Deal

The tentative plan calls for the federal government to buy the “toxic,” mortgage-backed assets of failing – or failed – financial institutions in a bid to keep the U.S. financial system from melting down. A meltdown would be the penultimate event that would sap investor confidence, setting in motion a series of irreversible events that would wipe out savings, cause a big spike in home foreclosures, and ultimately, cause a major surge in unemployment after thousands of small businesses fail and major companies resort to widespread layoffs.

The Bush administration has made concessions almost daily to demands from both the political right and left from its original three-page proposal, including agreeing to limit pay for executives of bailed-out financial institutions.

Debate has been fierce on such questions as whether to phase in the cost and whether to give taxpayers an equity stake in rescued companies. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told The Associated Press thatboth would be included in the legislation.

While details of the plan were not immediately provided, the compromise is said to include provisions to curb executive compensation for participating companies, provide more oversight of the Treasury’s actions, and supply the government with stock warrants that let the government share in profits generated by participating Wall Street firms.

“We came to some agreements on a lot of important issues,” Frank told The Los Angeles Times.