WASHINGTON – Suffering Texas companies are eyeing President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus package as the fastest way to get through hard times, lining up behind a package of tax cuts and infrastructure spending that could top $800 billion.

The recovery package, still in the discussion stages, has attracted a new wave of lobbyists to the Capitol, including officials from Dallas-based homebuilder Centex, who visited members of Congress on Wednesday.

Other North Texas companies that could benefit from the stimulus include Irving-based Fluor Corp., Plano-based J.C. Penney Co., and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.

Penney chairman and chief executive Myron E. Ullman III, with colleagues from PetSmart and Saks Inc., asked Obama last month to consider three separate sales-tax holidays in 2009. Retailers are slogging through a downturn in consumer spending, with J.C. Penney expected to report today a double-digit decline in December sales.

"Obviously there are a lot of contenders for ways to spend stimulus money," said Rachelle Bernstein, vice president and tax counsel at the National Retail Federation.

"What we think is, do something that is absolutely directed at the consumer," Bernstein said. "And the most targeted thing we can think of directed at the consumer is to take away the taxes on consumer spending."

Under the federation's proposal, the federal government would reimburse states like Texas for their lost sales-tax revenue, costing the U.S. Treasury $20 billion to $25 billion.

Homebuilders have focused their lobbying efforts on a $150 billion package designed to stimulate new demand for housing. It says a similar program, approved by Congress last year, failed to do enough.

The National Association of Home Builders is pushing a new homebuyer tax credit worth between $10,000 and $22,000, depending on local housing prices. Buyers wouldn't have to pay the money back.

The association, whose largest members include Centex and Fort Worth-based D.R. Horton Inc., also wants government subsidies that bring interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages down to 3 percent for the first six months of 2009.

Separately, homebuilders, along with other business lobbyists, are asking Congress to approve a provision that permits them to apply current losses to a preceding year's profits to reduce tax liabilities in that previous year. The measure would allow firms to claim immediate tax rebates from the government.

The so-called loss carryback provision was included in a housing bill that passed the Senate in April. It failed to gain support in the House, partly because it was viewed as a bailout for homebuilders.

Its chances for passage could improve now that profits have disappeared for other sectors.

"While it was objected to a year ago by the majority, it is clearly now being embraced by the majority's president," said R. Bruce Josten, the top lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "If you help companies get out of the bind they're in, you will stave off more layoffs."

The chamber also is pushing Congress to temporarily suspend taxes that companies pay when they repurchase their own debt. Some firms are now able to buy back their debt at deep discounts, but they would pay capital-gains taxes on the difference between the price they pay and the original issuance price of the debt.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Josten mentioned for-profit hospital operator Tenet Healthcare as one company that supports the change. Tenet, whose share price has fallen from $6.55 in early September to $1.31 on Wednesday, had about $4.8 billion in long-term debt at the end of September.

Fluor isn't lobbying for the stimulus – yet, said Stephen B. Dobbs, senior group president for industrial, infrastructure, government and global services. The company is monitoring how much is reserved for infrastructure, and would seek to manage or design projects once the money flows to states where Fluor has relationships.

The company is geared toward large, complex projects, such as bridgework and highway construction, not smaller maintenance jobs that are quicker to launch. If the stimulus focuses on smaller projects, major federal contractors such as Fluor won't be as involved, Dobbs said.

"We would certainly expect to pick up more than our fair share of any programs that came out with relatively large projects," Dobbs said.