WASHINGTON • Prodded by a wave of angry calls from constituents, congressional leaders dialed back partisan bickering over the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan Tuesday and advanced modest changes to the legislation in an effort to win over House Republican holdouts.Leaders of the Senate, where most members have indicated support for the bailout plan, said they would seek a vote on a revised rescue package tonight that would include a one-year increase in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation caps for bank and credit union accounts, extensions of numerous business tax breaks that have expired and a fix to the alternative minimum tax for individual taxpayers.The FDIC provision, which would raise the insurance cap for accounts to $250,000 from the current $100,000, would result in banks paying higher fees on their insurance premiums, but advocates say it would provide important assurances to small businesses that keep large sums of cash in bank accounts and are reeling from the credit crunch.Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama said Tuesday morning that they would support the insurance cap increase.Later in the day, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair asked Congress for temporary authority to raise the limit by an unspecified amount.The FDIC and tax provisions could make the bill more appealing to House Republicans, but they could also prove unpalatable to a coalition of conservative Democrats who have long opposed the tax changes. Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who helped negotiate the revised package, expressed confidence that the revisions would yield a majority of House votes.Although U.S. financial markets swung sharply upward Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 485.21 points, Monday’s record 778-point loss, which was fueled by the House’s rejection of the bailout plan, led to angry calls to lawmakers from constituents from across the political spectrum.There was a widespread sense on Capitol Hill that Monday’s vote had snapped the public to attention about the potential repercussions of Congress’s failure to act. Last week, House and Senate offices were bombarded with calls from opponents who viewed the bill as a Wall Street boondoggle. That call pattern shifted sharply after Monday’s vote, aides to lawmakers in both parties said. “It’s completely in the other direction now,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the Senate’s revised legislation “the best thing to move forward.” Reid was joined on the floor by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said the plan was “one of the finer moments in the Senate.”A senior House Republican adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about private strategy, said the addition of the FDIC cap increase and the tax credits – without any corresponding tax increases – could have “substantial appeal” among House Republicans. Boehner was consulted by Senate leaders and gave his approval, the aide said.But the addition of the tax provisions may entail new risks in the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi. D-Calif.. responded tepidly to the Senate announcement. “The Senate has made a decision about how to proceed and what can pass that body. The Senate will vote … and the Congress will work its will,” she said.Democratic and Republican aides warned that the “Blue Dogs” – a bloc of 47 fiscally conservative Democrats – might now oppose the market rescue plan. The Blue Dogs have opposed extending the tax credits unless there are other spending cuts or tax increases to pay for them.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, talked with Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., left, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS