By Robert Schmidt Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, less than a week after indicating he would let the Obama administration decide how to use the second half of the $700 billion financial fund, is considering asking for the money. Paulson may ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program as he puts together plans to boost consumer credit. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials are working on an effort to buttress the market for securities backed by auto, student and credit-card loans, Paulson said last week. He’s also assembling an office to address mortgage foreclosures. The plans are a shift from just six days ago, when Paulson told Congress “it was only prudent to reserve our TARP capacity, maintaining not only our flexibility, but that of the next administration.” Since then, the collapse in Citigroup Inc. shares threatened a renewed bout of financial turmoil, and forced the Treasury to mount a rescue of the bank late yesterday. “We plan on using our resources aggressively to support the normalization of credit markets and the expansion of credit to support economic recovery,” Paulson said in a Nov. 20 speech in Simi Valley, California. “We are actively engaged in developing programs to be implemented when ready.” To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net

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