U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee were beginning what was expected to be a furious, four-day negotiating session to approve the contours of the biggest government intervention into the financial markets since the Great Depression, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Sunday.

The newspaper said Paulson's proposal was stunningly simple, granting him unprecedented authority to use taxpayer dollars to buy and dispose of billions of dollars in "toxic" mortgage-related securities at the heart of last week's Wall Street credit crisis.

Congressional Democrats, however, said they would insist on adding measures to directly address the plight of U.S. homeowners stuck with expensive mortgages, and would challenge the unfettered authority given to Paulson.

"It essentially creates an economic czar with no administrative oversight, no legal review, no legislative review. And it gives one man $700 billion to disperse as the needs fit," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Times.