A deadly game of chicken is being played between Detroit and Washington. Aid or collapse?

A small group of Democratic and Republic senators from auto industry states tried to force the hand of their fellow lawmakers, saying that they had come up with a plan to help the troubled Big Three. Reports of the bipartisan agreement, however limited, cheered the market, and the Dow Jones industrial average, which had been sliding earlier, jumped more than 100 points.

The pro-auto senators had just played their best hand: the market has priced in a collapse of the industry, so any sign help from Washington is going to be a positive.

But the Democratic leadership quickly countered by saying: Not so fast. Word of the resistance sent stocks sliding back down.

Loans or a bailout for Detroit do no have enough support in Congress, Democratic leaders said. Instead, they are asking General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler to come up with plans by December 2 on how they intend to overhaul their companies and how they would use government money. A lame-duck session Congress could then reconvene the week of December 8.

"The key here is accountability and viability,” Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, said, according to the Detroit News. “ That's what we're seeking. That's not too much to ask."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Unless they can show us the plan, we can't show them the money,” Bloomberg News reported.

The plan by the four senators -- Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Kit Bond of Missouri and George Voinovich of Ohio – involved drawing money from the $25 billion Congress allocated to the companies to retool their plants to improve fuel efficiency. But the Democratic leadership said that they would not tamper with that legislation.

The maneuvers in Washington come just a day after the chief executives of the Big Three were castigated in Senate and House committee hearings for two days. The C.E.O. were sharply criticized for flying to Washington in private jets, for their compensation, and their management.