By Benton Ives, CQ Staff

Congress moved forward with a massive housing package Thursday, but lawmakers still have a handful of outstanding issues to iron out before they can clear the bill.

The Senate is expected to volley the package (HR 3221) back to the House on Friday, after last-minute floor-wrangling delayed final Senate approval on Thursday. The package continues to enjoy overwhelming support in the Senate, but House lawmakers are planning on making several changes before bouncing it back, which could draw out the legislative endgame.

On Thursday, senators voted, 84-12, to invoke cloture on a portion of the bill, which was the last major procedural vote necessary before sending the legislation back to the House.

An effort by John Ensign , R-Nev., to attach an $8.2 billion package of energy tax break extenders, which had been holding up the bill, came up short, as an overwhelming majority of senators repeatedly voted to move forward without Ensign’s amendment.

The two chambers remain in broad agreement over the measure’s core provisions: a major regulatory overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration and a $300 billion expansion of the FHA’s loan insurance programs aimed at helping borrowers avoid foreclosure.

The legislation also includes a $14.5 billion housing-focused tax package.

But the two chambers have to sort out several differences, including finding offsets for the tax package, the effective date for Fannie’s and Freddie’s new regulator and billions in grants for states to rehabilitate foreclosed properties.

Major Differences in House and Senate Housing Bills: Click here to view the chart

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank , D-Mass., will now try to shepherd the bill through the House floor. On Thursday, he said the measure could come up as early as next week, though consideration could slip into the week of July 21.

While the bill slogged through the Senate, Frank and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., continued negotiations on the package. Frank is hoping that “what we send them they will accept,” to avoid another round of pingponging the bill between the chambers.

Action on the bill comes amid continued bad news in the housing market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac share prices plunged Thursday amid continued concern over their solvency. On Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. assured lawmakers, “Their regulator has made clear that they are adequately capitalized.”

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, appearing at a Financial Services hearing, pressed for further regulatory powers to respond to the housing crisis and the larger problems it exposed in the financial markets, but acknowledged congressional action beyond the housing bill was unlikely this year.

“In the longer term . . . legislation may be needed to provide a more robust framework for prudential supervision of investment banks and other large securities dealers,” Bernanke said.