After finding overwhelming support in the U.S. Senate, legislation aimed at rescuing the nation’s economy heads to the House, which is likely to vote on the bill Friday.

House leaders, not willing to risk another plunge in the stock market, said they would schedule a vote if they were sure the votes were there. When the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a similar bill on Monday, stocks fell 778 points.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, voted against that legislation and was unsure how he would vote on the Senate-approved version.

“This bill is not about adding more presents; it’s about trying to take care of our financial crisis that we currently have,” said Michaud, referring to additional spending, such as tax cuts, attached to the bill by the Senate. “They really haven’t done anything to address some of my concerns in the original bill, such as the checks on the $700 billion of spending authority.”

Michaud said Thursday afternoon that he was still reviewing the legislation.

“I’ll be meeting with different groups later today to talk to them as to how we’re going to approach this,” he said. “There is progress being made that probably would not have happened if we were to rubber-stamp or just followed our leadership in this particular area.”

Maine’s 1st District Rep. Tom Allen, also a Democrat, voted for the bill on Monday and said he expected to vote for the Senate’s revised bill.

“The credit markets are tighter than ever,” Allen said. “We have to act. The bottom line is this financial crisis is so serious it will ultimately affect everyone in this country if we don’t take some action reasonably soon.”

Candidates would vote no

Two candidates running to replace Allen, who is challenging Republican Susan Collins for her U.S. Senate seat, said they would vote against the bailout bill if they were in Congress.

Democrat Chellie Pingree said she was not convinced the legislation would provide sufficient foreclosure protections. Republican Charlie Summers said he worried about the ability of taxpayers to get their money back if the government spent it buying up mortgages with an unpredictable resale value.

Both acknowledged Congress is in a tough position.

“I’d still be a ‘no’ vote,” Pingree said. “I also know at some point, everyone is going to have to come to a vote and move on. When this is done, Congress is going to have to hold a lot of hearings about what went wrong on Wall Street and what accounting rules and oversights have to be changed.”

Summers agreed that Congress needs to act.

“It’s warranted that Congress takes some action, but we’ve got to do it in a way that protects the American taxpayer,” he said. “The worst time to be making major decisions is when you feel like your back is up against the wall.”

John Frary, the Republican candidate running against Michaud in the 2nd District, said that despite his reservations, he would vote for the bill.

“It’s a liquidity crisis,” he said. “And I understand the mentality to get revenge … but not rescuing major corporations from this mess would be folly. We’ve seen this situation in our history at least three times before, a credit crisis and uncertainty, and it just has to be done. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d have to for vote it.”

Maine’s 2nd congressional district comprises 10 counties, including Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford, plus parts of Kennebec County.