BARACK OBAMA’S administration has stepped up pressure on US lawmakers, threatening to force them to work through their one-week recess starting on Friday, in order to get the $800 billion economic stimulus package enacted as soon as possible.

Amid the worst job losses in a generation, Mr Obama postponed details of a $350 billion bank rescue plan in order to force legislators to focus first on passing the economic stimulus bill.

As part of the administration’s plans to go over the heads of Congress and sell the package to the public, Mr Obama will today hold a session with voters in Indiana before staging his first presidential press conference during evening prime time.

Tim Geithner, US treasury secretary, will now unveil the new troubled asset relief programme guidelines tomorrow.

“There’s a desire to keep the focus on the economic recovery programme,” Lawrence Summers, Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser, told Fox News yesterday.

His comments followed a late-night compromise with three Republican senators on Friday that cut more than $100 billion in spending from the Bill that was passed by the House of Representatives.

The administration’s next task will be to pass a resolution in the Senate tonight to close off further debate on the stimulus.

After that there will be several more congressional hurdles to clear before the Bill reaches Mr Obama’s desk.

On the Geithner plan, analysts say tomorrow’s announcement represents a pivotal moment for the new administration. If the Obama team’s plan for repairing the financial sector and restoring the flow of credit to households and businesses succeeds, it could lay the foundations for recovery from the credit crisis.

If it fails, a dysfunctional financial system could prevent any durable economic rebound from taking hold, steadily undermining all the wider hopes and promise of the Obama presidency. – ( Financial Times service)