Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said he was ''optimistic'' after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson faced a second day of grilling on their bail-out plan by the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Senator Dodd said, ''It is a sad and tragic moment for our country but it deserves a response.

''We are going to make decisions that are going to have implications for decades, so this requires smart action from members of the Congress.''

Earlier, a spokesman for House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank said Democratic leaders, including Senator Dodd, were working on ''specific language to rebut the [United States] Treasury proposal'' presented at the weekend.

The Government's $US700 billion ($A835 billion) bail-out proposal received a cold shoulder earlier this week from senators baulking at White House pressures for its swift passage.

Mr Frank's spokesman, Steve Adamske, said the Democratic leadership was looking for changes in the plan and despite some ''sticking points ... we believe we are making progress''.

''We want greater accountability and a large degree of responsibility,'' the spokesman said, echoing the Democrats' insistence that any plan should limit compensation packages for company leaders.

Senator Dodd said discussions were closer in finalising a deal.

''We're very much in the process to get that, but it's not done, we're not there I tell you that, but we're getting there,'' he said.

Some of the issues making headway in the plan discussions included ''oversight, transparency, accountability, executive compensation'', Senator Dodd said.

Mr Frank said he was surprised at Mr Paulson's statement on the need for legislation on compensation packages for company leaders.

''He accepts the reality that to get this Bill passed there has got to be something there'' Mr Frank said.

Mr Frank listed some of the issues that he wanted the bail-out plan to address.

He said, ''We're going to get restrictions on CEO compensation.

''We're also doing proxy access, where you have these boards of directors that are immune to anybody.

''And we're going to give the shareholders the right to petition so they can elect the directors.

''Next we have in our Bill the right for people to invoke bankruptcy for their primary residence. Right now, you can for your vacation home, but not your primary residence ...

''Beyond that, we're giving them authority they didn't want, not just to buy paper, but to take shares in the company, that will, (a), give the dividends, and, (b), get warrants so the results of the companies become more profitable than they have been.

''The federal government gets extra help. We are also setting up contrary to what they request, a tough oversight board.''

President George W.Bush gave a televised speech yesterday in a bid to boost pressure on wary legislators to adopt his embattled Wall Street rescue plan.

The speech came as legislators struggled to find a compromise on steps to save troubled US banks, some voicing deep scepticism despite fears, stoked by the White House, that inaction could trigger a global financial meltdown.

Independent senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist from Vermont, called for the richest Americans to shoulder the cost of Wall Street's financial debacle.

''If there is a need for a bail-out, it is not the middle class that has to pay for it,'' he said. Senator Sanders said the bail-out package's Bill should be footed over a period of five years.

It should include a special 10 per cent income tax on individuals with annual incomes above $A600,000 and married couples earning more than $A1.2 million.

Senator Sanders said, ''That would raise $US300 billion [$A360 billion]'', adding an online version of his plan on his website received 8000 signatures in the first 24 hours.

He called the Bush Administration ''the most incompetent in the history of this country''.

At a second day of hearings on Capitol Hill, Mr Paulson renewed his plea for approval of the bail-out package.

Mr Paulson said, ''We must do so in order to avoid a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets that threaten American families' financial well-being, the viability of businesses both small and large, and the very health of our economy.''

Mr Bernanke said, ''Action by the Congress is urgently required to stabilise the situation and avert what otherwise could be very serious consequences for our financial markets and for our economy.''

Leaders of both parties scrambled to come up with a compromise that would help restore confidence in fragile financial markets.

Some legislators said the plan involved too much government intervention in the economy.

The Republican Study Committee said the Treasury plan ''fundamentally alters the nation's free-market system in that it socialises ... money-losing mortgage assets and places the US on a slippery slope where profits will also be nationalised.''

Democratic senator Charles Schumer suggested the package be cut to $A180.5 billion and gradually increased if needed. AFP