In her interview with CNBC Monday and in comments to other news organizations, Clinton did not refer to the Home program in reacting to the Treasury plan, but did say that “part of what needs to go into the proposal is the authority for mortgage modifications.”

Watch Clinton's interview on CNBC at left.

Based on that interview and comments made to to other news organizations Monday, it was not entiirely clear that Clinton was proposing a different, additional programfor loan modification.

When CNBC.com sought clarification on that point Tuesday, her office said the senator was unavailable and referred to a lengthy statement on the economic crisis on the senator's Website.

The statements refers to her calls for "creating a new version of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to remove bad mortgage debt from the market and restore confidence," and her introduction of "the Mortgage Refinancing Initiative of 2008, which would provide an opportunity for at-risk households to refinance unworkable mortgages."

Pollock says the $300 billion allocated is enough to “make a meaningful start," and is equivalent to 15 percent of the $2 trillion in existing subprime and Alt-A mortgage debt.

More broadly, it’s odd that the plan hasn’t figured much, if at all, into the overall debate.

You would think Paulson, who once again Tuesday called the housing correction “the root cause” of the credit crisis, would have reminded Congress of the government's commitment in deflecting criticism about the shortcomings of the Bush administration’s plan.

At the same time, you would think that Congressional Democrats and others at the first of two public hearings would have called for the need to supplement the Hope program, amend it or tie it in some way to the current crisis legislation.

(Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, oddly enough, was the one person who mentioned the program by name—in an answer to a question about foreclosure protection—and that was very late in the day.

The near vaccum of sorts begs the question as to whether the program and its broader legislative parent have been forgotten in the heat of the crisis.

“It’s possible," says Jackabovics. “Because it isn't up and running now, it’s kind of orphaned."