Texas ? Responding to Americans’ anger over gas prices and the housing bust, President Bush is stepping up pressure on Congress to open up offshore oil exploration and work to restore confidence in the housing finance industry.

“This is a challenging time for families across our nation,” Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. “I know many families are worried about rising prices at the pump and declining home values.”

Bush recently lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling. He said it’s Congress’ turn to act.

“The only thing now standing between the American people and the vast oil resources of the Outer Continental Shelf is action from the United States Congress,” he said.

With soaring gas prices, public opinion on energy issues is shifting in favor of a more permissive stance on drilling, even though resistance remains to the idea of opening the Atlantic and Pacific coasts or the eastern Gulf off Florida’s beaches to oil and gas companies.