Austin Kilgore | 01.13.09 www.dsnews.com

President-elect Barack Obama turned to fellow Democrats in the Senate for support of his economic stimulus proposals and for them to release the remaining $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds for his administration to distribute.

Obama addressed his former Senate colleagues during a closed-door lunch Tuesday. Senators reportedly left the meeting confident Obama would correct what they believed were shortcomings in the first distribution of funds by the Bush administration.

Obama also called for the quick passing of a $775 billion economic stimulus package. Top Democrats hope to have it passed by mid-February, despite criticism from members of both parties about the balance of the package's tax cuts and spending.

The recipients of the money, when, and if, the TARP funds are released, is also a point of contention, but the prevailing sentiment seems to spend a significant portion of the funds to reduce foreclosures.

“The remaining TARP funds will play an essential role in further strengthening the financial system and restoring normal credit flows,” Federal Reserve vice chairman Donald Kohn said in prepared testimony to the House Financial Service Committee Tuesday, adding reducing foreclosures, restarting credit markets, and continuing direct aid to banks were the best uses of the money.

Obama has also publicly said not enough has been done to prevent foreclosures.

“I think that when you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families on the ground who may have lost their homes because they lost their jobs or because they got sick, we haven't done enough there,” Obama said during an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Congress can vote to block the release of the TARP funds, and some Republicans are threatening to do so, unless there are more specific details of how it will be spent. Congress is expected to vote on the resolution on the release by Jan. 18.

Obama has said he wants limits on executive compensation and dividends for institutions that receive TARP funds, as well as greater accountability of where the money is going once it leaves the government's hands.