S&L; Loan Rules May Be Eased: Under...

S&L; Loan Rules May Be Eased: Under intense lobbying by the home building, real estate and savings and loan industries, the Bush Administration is considering a plan to temporarily set aside one of the key reforms of last year’s thrift rescue bill. The change would sharply increase the amount of money that a savings and loan can lend to any one home builder. The proposal, being reviewed by the Treasury Department, would allow healthy S&Ls; to lend home builders four times as much money as they were permitted to borrow under strict lending limits passed by Congress last summer.