WASHINGTON — The Senate cleared the last hurdle yesterday to passing a housing rescue aimed at sparing hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure and bolstering troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The 80-13 test vote showed broad support for the election-year package and put it on track to pass the Senate by today. The White House says President Bush will sign it, having earlier dropped a threat to veto it over $3.9 billion in neighborhood grants.

U.S. Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka, both Hawai'i Democrats, voted to clear the way for a final Senate vote Saturday on the legislation.

"This essential legislation helps families remain in their homes, ensures access to credit, creates more affordable housing opportunities, and provides much needed improvements to veterans' housing benefits," Akaka said.

Among other provisions, the bill would be used for grants to help communities buy and repair foreclosed properties to prevent neighborhood deterioration.

Hawai'i could receive about $37.2 million of the grants to help restore about 600 properties including about 140 in Honolulu.

The bill — regarded as the most significant housing legislation in a generation — is designed to help an estimated 400,000 homeowners escape foreclosure by letting them refinance into more affordable loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

It was set to clear Congress as a private company reported that the number of households facing the foreclosure process more than doubled in the second quarter of 2008 compared with a year ago. Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, Inc., said that 739,714 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice during the quarter, or one in every 171 U.S. households.

"The American people can begin to see they're going to get some relief and some help from their Congress," said U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman.

The plan gives the Treasury Department power to spend unlimited amounts to prop up Fannie and Freddie, should they need it, to calm investor fears about their financial stability at a time of rising foreclosures and falling home values. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson calls the authority a "backstop" which he has no intention of using.

Paulson's request for the emergency power helped forge a bipartisan deal on the legislation, which also creates a new regulator with tighter controls on the government-sponsored mortgage firms - something Republicans have long sought.

Democrats also won key concessions as part of the compromise, including a permanent affordable housing program to be financed by Fannie and Freddie profits and the $3.9 billion in grants for buying and fixing up foreclosed properties in neighborhoods hit hardest by the housing crisis.

Many conservative Republicans are vehemently opposed to the foreclosure rescue, which they call a bailout of irresponsible homeowners and unscrupulous lenders. They are equally furious about the help for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, companies they say enjoy lavish profits in good times and wield their outsized political clout to resist regulation while depending on the government to bail them out should they falter.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was single-handedly delaying a final vote on the package until Saturday because Democrats refused to allow a vote on his proposal barring the two firms from lobbying and making political contributions.

"These organizations that are now guaranteed by the American taxpayer should no longer be able to spend millions of dollars buying influence in Congress. That's a conflict of interest," DeMint said.

Dodd called Republican efforts to delay the measure's passage "tragic" given how many people are losing their homes each day.

More than three-quarters of Republicans voted against the measure when it passed the House on Wednesday.

Advertiser staff writer Dennis Camire contributed to this report.