GOP lawmakers try to push through agenda items by year's end

Investigations into President Bush's decision on domestic spying were sought.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican congressional leaders agreed to trim deficits by $41.6 billion and sought to unlock the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling Sunday in a frenzied year-end bid to enact the core of a conservative agenda.
"We're going to move the nation's business" through Congress, vowed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accused the GOP of breaking Senate rules to suit their purposes and threatened to slow action to a crawl. "The arrogance of power of the Republicans ... is beyond my ability to comprehend," he said.
Medicare, the student loan program and Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, would all be tapped for savings under the emerging five-year deficit-cutting plan.
House Republican leaders said they would call for a vote within hours, and a post-midnight session seemed likely. Passage would clear the way for a Senate vote as early as today.
Democrats and Republicans called separately Sunday for congressional investigations into President Bush's decision after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to allow domestic eavesdropping without court approval.
"The president has, I think, made up a law that we never passed," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he intends to hold hearings.
"They talk about constitutional authority," Specter said. "There are limits as to what the president can do."
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also called for an investigation, and House Democratic leaders asked Speaker Dennis Hastert to create a bipartisan panel to do the same.
Bush acknowledged Saturday that since October 2001 he has authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States without seeking warrants from courts.
The ANWR drilling legislation faced a rocky course -- a threatened filibuster in the Senate that can only be broken with a 60-vote majority.
Democratic critics attacked the bill's chief advocate, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, for adding the oil provision to legislation providing $453 billion for the Pentagon.
They also accused him of offering enticements to skeptical senators in the form of funds for hurricane relief and other programs.
Conservatives hailed the deficit-cutting measure as the first attempt in a decade to rein in the cost of federal benefit programs, which customarily expand from year to year based on the eligible population.
Preliminary figures put the savings from Medicare at $8.3 billion over the next five years, and planned spending on Medicaid was estimated to fall by nearly $5 billion.
The largest single savings in Medicare would reduce anticipated federal funding for the private HMOs established under 2003 Medicare legislation designed to give the program a free-market flavor.
Payments for home health care services would be curbed as well.
According to a preliminary draft of the agreement, wealthier beneficiaries would be required to pay higher premiums under Part B, which covers doctor services.
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