With military action under way in Afghanistan, the next major challenge facing Congress is passage of a stimulus package to repair America's economy, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Saturday. 
Daschle, D-South Dakota, said there is room for compromise between members of his party, many of whom support authorizing $50 billion in aid, and the Bush administration, which has suggested that $75 billion might be needed. 
"Once again, we are asked to put aside politics and work for the good of the nation," he said, delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address. 
The GOP and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate budget committees have endorsed a set of principles for an economic package, Daschle said. They agree that any measures must be temporary -- to avoid increasing the national debt and pushing up interest rates and housing costs; have an immediate impact; be fiscally responsible; and include a mix of tax cuts and investments. 
According to Daschle, economists have said that the most effective and fastest way to boost consumer spending and business investment would be to help victims of the terrorist attacks, including more than 150,000 airline workers and thousands of other employees in other industries who have lost their jobs. 
"So helping them with unemployment and health-care benefits, payroll tax rebates and other consumer-related measures isn't just the decent thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," he said. 
The push for an economic stimulus package to help the nation's economy rebound from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has in recent days uncovered some of the partisan fissures in Congress that had receded in the swell of national unity that followed the September 11 attacks. 
On Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives unveiled their own $100 billion economic stimulus bill, but Democrats complained the bill was not a joint, bipartisan effort. 
The House GOP bill provides about $70 billion in corporate tax relief and about $30 billion in tax cuts for individuals in fiscal year 2002. It includes rebates for Americans who did not receive any check this summer -- a measure meant to appease Democrats. 
"In the face of layoffs, tumbling corporate profits, falling stock markets and shakier consumer confidence, no doubt remains that this legislation is needed," said House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-California. 
In the Senate, Democratic Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, and Republican Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have been working closely together on writing a bill. 
"I'm disappointed really that the House is going off on all of its tangents once again," Daschle said Friday. "The capital gains cut apparently is alive and well over there and an array of other things that are just handouts to those who probably don't need it." 
The White House welcomed the House Republican stimulus bill, even though it is much larger than the $60 billion to $75 billion package that President Bush previously suggested. 
"The president is pleased that action is beginning in the House on a stimulus package," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday. He added that the measure "includes many of the items that the president has proposed." 
Fleischer also said Bush "hopes that the end product will be a very bipartisan product. He wants to work closely with the Democrats on this." 
CNN Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow contributed to this report.