Miami Herald – WASHINGTON — Top Senate negotiators tentatively agreed Tuesday on a bipartisan plan for aiding and dissolving troubled financial institutions, a plan aimed at barring taxpayer dollars from being used for such purposes.

The proposal, part of a massive overhaul of the government's financial regulatory system, would eliminate a $50 billion fund in the original Democratic-authored bill. That fund was to be paid by large institutions and would have helped dissolve failing firms.

The proposed fund became a convenient target for Republicans, however, who labeled it a pot of bailout money that would wind up costing consumers. Though Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the fund wasn't a taxpayer bailout, the objections threatened to derail the entire bill.

So Dodd said he and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the panel, reached an agreement Tuesday.

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