The Bush administration has called off internal deliberations over a bailout plan for student-loan companies after concluding it did not have the authority to act on its own. Instead, it endorsed a Congressional proposal that would allow the education secretary to purchase loans from private lenders. The decision leaves Congress facing a ticking clock for solving a student-loan "crisis" that some legislators are not sure yet exists. The lawmakers are also caught between industry lobbyists who feel the legislation may offer them little real help and student-aid advocates worried about creating a framework that might enable abuses. Sameer Gokhale, an industry analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said the proposed authority for the education secretary appears to offer lenders nothing more than funds to cover the cost of writing their loans. At the same time, some student-aid lobbyists have expressed concern that the plans under consideration in Congress, especially the version pending in the Senate, contain enough uncertainties that loan companies could profit by dumping only their lowest-value loans on the federal government.