WASHINGTON (October 26, 2009)--The U.S. Treasury Department and a senior House Democrat have decided against making financial firms pay upfront the costs of dismantling if regulators decide they have grown "too big to fail."

Instead, those companies would be allowed to borrow money from the government to cover the cost of dissolving themselves.

The Obama administration and Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank plan to announce the plan by Tuesday.

Officials have been wrestling with how to pay for a new government program that would dissolve firms that have taken on too much debt and their collapse threatens the broader economy.