Our Senators aren’t known for working on the weekend (they also aren’t known for working more than three or four days a week on the "country’s business"), but they made an exception to pass the housing relief bill. President Bush is expected to sign it - possibly very soon - after weeks of threatening not to. It’s amazing what can happen when you add provisions for keeping the two largest mortgage lenders afloat into a divisive bill.

At any rate, here are some of the key highlights of the housing relief bill:

*Provisions are made for the government to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if we get to that point.

*A regulator to oversee government sponsored enterprises is created.

*Homeowners get more tax breaks.

*Underwriting standards for mortgage borrowers in trouble are loosened considerably.

*FHA gets portion of profitable sales on homes that it refinances.

*Credit card processors and electronic payment facilitators (like PayPal) have to report transactions.

*Congress raises the "acceptable" limit for government debt to $10.6 trillion.

While some provisions make sense (regulating GSEs, for example), others are likely to create a headache. I’m still wondering why we even pretend to have a ceiling on federal debt.

What do you think of the housing relief bill?