"One has to wonder how much more these programs can take before they are no longer viable," she said. "We are very concerned."
Veterans programs are also expected to be pinched, with flat funding, higher deductibles and co-payments for health care and a squeeze on benefit eligibility, aides said.
 
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The National Science Foundation will be virtually frozen, and the substantial budget increases over the past decade for the National Institutes of Health will end, Appropriations Committee aides said.
As for dealing with entitlement programs: Bush last year sought to reimpose expired budget limits that in the 1990s forced lawmakers to offset increased entitlement benefits with entitlement cuts elsewhere in the budget. The proposal also would require the cost of any entitlement changes to be projected out beyond the five- or 10-year window of most congressional budgets.
That legislation is likely to be resubmitted, congressional aides said.
Brian M. Riedl, a federal budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the White House will again propose to turn Medicaid health care funding into block grants for state governments. The proposal was first made last year, and included initial payment increases and expanded discretion for state and local governments to change the primary health care system for the poor. Those sweeteners would then be followed by cuts in later years.
The same approach probably will be repeated for public housing, a Senate leadership aide said.
The White House is also mulling changes to farm subsidies that would cut benefits to large agribusinesses, Riedl said.
Smaller programs, such as the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Advanced Technology Program, will be all but eliminated. John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said the group is girding for a fight to restore those programs.
Indeed, before the budget is presented, some members of Congress are signaling they will not be compliant. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) sent a letter to White House Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten yesterday, warning him not to cut funding for oil and gas production, as he tried last year.
Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Bingaman, said, "He wanted to fire an early shot across the bow."
