House near ANWR vote

Meeting Saturday, Congress took no action on pending legislation that could open ANWR, but the House is due to take up a defense bill this afternoon that might have an ANWR measure attached.

If that happens, there's a good chance the House would vote to open the Arctic Refuge, as it has repeatedly in recent years, with both Republicans and Democrats voting for it.

Moderate Republicans were able to remove ANWR from the budget bill last month, but only because all Democrats held fast against the budget reconciliation legislation, which had cuts to social programs they abhorred. The defense spending bill, on the other hand, will pass much more easily in the House.

The real showdown is likely to be in the Senate on Monday or Tuesday. The Senate usually blocks ANWR bills with a filibuster. The drilling measure finally passed the Senate this fall because it was part of a budget bill, which is immune from filibuster. But now, if ANWR shows up as part of the defense appropriations bill, drilling opponents can filibuster.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said last week he fully expects them to. He'll need 60 votes to break the filibuster. He said combining ANWR with Pentagon spending might work because the defense bill is hard to vote against.

His critics, including environmentalists, Democrats and some Republicans, said the tactic amounts to holding defense money hostage to ANWR. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it "disgusting."

Jerry Hood, lobbyist for the pro-drilling group Arctic Power, on the other hand, called the combined bill "ironically appropriate."

"If you want to look at it from a military standpoint, the military consumes a tremendous amount of petroleum products to fuel all their efforts," Hood said.

Congressional Republicans did agree Saturday on $29 billion in additional aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the other powerful storms that lashed the United States earlier this year.

Officials stressed the funds, far more than the Bush administration proposed earlier this fall, would not add to federal deficits, a priority for conservative lawmakers. They said the hurricane relief as well as an additional $3.8 billion to help prepare for an outbreak of avian flu would be offset, in part by a 1 percent cut across a wide swath of federal programs.

The cuts would affect domestic programs as well as defense and homeland security, according Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Federal support for veterans, whose ranks are swelling as the result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would not be affected, he said.

GOP leaders also neared agreement on legislation to trim deficits by an estimated $40 billion over the next several years. Savings would come from several programs, including student loans, Medicare and Medicaid, the state-federal partnership that provides health care for the poor.

A fresh controversy flared Saturday when House Republicans, in a move designed to hinder Democratic-aligned political groups, pressed a last-minute bid to pass legislation limiting individual donations to independent groups.

Democrats objected, saying the GOP was holding up passage of a defense bill to seek partisan gain. "I think it's a travesty," said Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., long involved in efforts to reduce the influence of money in political campaigns.

On another issue, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said, "It's incumbent on us" to pass a renewal of the Patriot Act. President Bush lambasted Democrats who blocked enactment of the anti-terrorism law on Friday, saying, "That decision is irresponsible and it endangers the lives of our citizens."

Democrats fired back quickly. "Fear mongering and false choices do little to advance either the security or liberty of Americans," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. He urged the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress to accept changes to the Patriot Act that would protect the rights of the innocent.

Separately, House and Senate leaders reported progress toward agreement on legislation designed to curb the rising costs of health care for the poor and the student loan program. Under pressure from Senate moderates, the two sides have jettisoned plans to find savings in food stamps.

Overall, the two sides were aiming at deficit cuts of at least $40 billion over five years, but that goal ran into pressure for higher spending elsewhere.