WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is considering easing its approval process of mortgage-related debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they are increasingly relied upon to stabilize the turbulent home-loan market.

The Treasury Department presented a proposal to the government-sponsored companies, the two biggest U.S. financers and guarantors of home loans, earlier this week. It provides a looser approval process compared with a plan issued in late 2006.

The new proposal, reported in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, would require Freddie and Fannie to notify the Treasury twice a year, rather than each quarter, about how much new debt they intend to issue during the period. In another change, the companies' senior executives would not be required to sign off on the requests.

Freddie Mac spokesman Michael Cosgrove and Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said the companies are reviewing the proposal.

The two companies were created by Congress to pump money into the home-mortgage market by buying home loans from banks and other lenders and bundling them into securities for sale on Wall Street.

Together they hold or guarantee about $4.9 trillion in home-mortgage debt.