Democrat Rick Noriega said Monday he is outraged over the proposed $700 billion bailout of troubled financial institutions while Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he has reservations and questions about the plan.

Cornyn did not say whether he will vote for the Bush administration proposal to buy banks' bad mortgage debt. Cornyn's office said he is reviewing it.

The first-term Texas senator, who faces Noriega in his re-election bid, said he respects Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke but taxpayers deserve more details. Both Paulson and Bernanke are testifying before Congress this week.

"I have serious reservations about asking those who played by the rules to bear the burden of those who made irresponsible and risky financial decisions. The interests of the American taxpayer must be the key, guiding principle moving forward," Cornyn said in a prepared statement issued by his Washington, D.C., office.

Noriega expressed disgust with the plan as it stands.

"I am outraged that taxpayers are having to foot the $700 billion bill to clean up the mess made by greedy Wall Street investors and mortgage lenders," Noriega, a Houston legislator, said in a written statement. He later repeated that stance after speaking to the lunch crowd at an El Paso senior citizen's center.

"Once again for incompetence there needs to be accountability," Noriega said.

He said he supports additional provisions proposed by congressional Democrats such as help for middle-class homeowners, more oversight of the bailout plan and reining in what he called out-of-control pay for companies' chief executives.

Congressional leaders and President Bush's administration have been meeting to negotiate on the rescue plan. One leading Democrat in the talks said Bush's team has agreed to include mortgage aid for homeowners and strong congressional oversight.

Cornyn, the vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference, said he wants to arrive at a bipartisan solution and said possible criminal acts by corporate executives should be aggressively investigated and prosecuted. Cornyn has previously called for a criminal investigation of executives at the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Texas' senior U.S. senator, Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, held back from endorsing the administration's rescue plan.

"A proposal this complicated will have enormous consequences and I want to completely evaluate the options before rendering a judgment," she said.

Noriega continued his campaign tactic of trying to paint Cornyn as part of the problem in Washington. He contends Cornyn has done nothing to protect Texans from Wall Street greed and has accepted nearly $1.5 million in campaign money from perpetrators of the financial crisis.

Cornyn's campaign spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, responded by saying: "According to Rick Noriega, John Cornyn is to blame for everything that's gone wrong in the last century. It's ridiculous and doesn't pass the smell test."