A dispute over how much power to give a new financial consumer watchdog will be the first issue dealt with by lawmakers Tuesday as they enter the home stretch on historic Wall Street reforms.

A joint Senate-House of Representatives panel aims to complete final legislation by Thursday, but meeting that goal may be hard with unresolved issues piling up and the most controversial proposals facing the panel yet to come.

Still, with irascible Democratic Rep. Barney Frank in charge, analysts said debate could proceed briskly.

"If anyone can force his colleagues over the finish line, it’s Chairman Frank and his fire-cracker gavel," said Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, a firm that advises on regulatory policy.

The congressional conference committee led by Frank is crafting a sweeping package of reforms that will combine bills already approved by the two chambers. The finished product will have to win approval once more. Then it can go to President Barack Obama to sign. Democrats hope for that by July 4.

The bill will be the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s. Enactment would give Obama and the Democrats a major policy victory to add to healthcare reform going into November’s general elections.

Frank and his Senate counterpart, Democrat Christopher Dodd, must walk a tightrope in shaping the bill, balancing demands from progressive Democrats for tough reforms with the need to retain some Republican support for it in the Senate.

"I expect a couple of long sessions," said Brian Gardner, a policy analyst at investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods. "They’ll try to move heaven and earth to finish by the end of the week. But … it might be tough."