The Treasury Department wants to keep the money at its disposal in case the economy gets worse. But fiscal conservatives like Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, both Republican, want the money kept to pay down the national debt.

Meanwhile, a group of liberal Democrats led by Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, say at least a portion of it should be spent to help cash-strapped homeowners.

"We clearly face a new wave of foreclosures" because of rising unemployment, Frank said at a hearing yesterday.

The question of what to do with the money will grow more pressing in coming months as Congress takes a step back to consider the fate of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Lawmakers had rushed to approve the money in October 2008 as Wall Street sat on the brink of collapse. Since then, even as the economy continues to wobble and high unemployment threatens the prospects for a speedy recovery, major banks have repaid $70 billion in assistance and expressed growing optimism about their ability to function without government assistance.

TARP is set to conclude at the end of the year unless Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extends it through fall 2010.

The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, estimated on Thursday that the government has about $328 billion left in the fund that hasn't been spent or legally committed.

And for many lawmakers, money already approved by Congress to aid the economy is ripe for the picking. Frank wants to use dividends earned through government-owned stock in ailing banks to go toward affordable housing programs. *