Lawmakers Plan Ambitious Agenda as Voter Anger Rises

But that is only one issue on a crowded plate, leadership aides cautioned. Next week's priorities will be reauthorizing the law that governs the nation's intelligence agencies and approving changes to rules governing lobbying and the funding of home-district pet projects, known as earmarks.

There should be action the first week of May on revamping telecommunication laws, and the next week will be given to the annual defense policy bill. Sometime in May, House leaders would like to act on energy legislation to ease voter concerns over soaring gasoline prices, and changes to the nation's emergency management system ahead of the hurricane season, which will begin June 1.

A bill to extend some expiring tax cuts from President Bush's first term could come up next month as well. House and Senate negotiators have been at an impasse over that measure since late last year.

In June, the House hopes to take up several health-care bills that would allow small businesses to pool together to buy health insurance, expand tax-free health savings accounts and improve the portability of health insurance from one employer to another.

"It's a robust agenda," said Kevin Madden, spokesman for House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). "There are significant challenges that the House is focused on."

The Senate's plate appears equally full, but Senate leaders must contend with an increasingly partisan atmosphere that has dragged out even routine procedural motions. Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said Senate leaders intend to reconsider the immigration bill, but not immediately.

Next week will be devoted to a $106.5 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as ongoing Gulf Coast hurricane relief. The measure almost certainly will not be completed before the Senate moves on to its "health-care week," featuring legislation on small business health plans and limits on medical malpractice suits.

Frist would like to revisit the immigration bill, complete the emergency spending measure and take up the tax cut extensions in May, then move on in June to votes on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and a permanent repeal of the estate tax, Call said. He could also bring two controversial judicial nominations to the floor next month: U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and White House aide Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

All of those plans could be thwarted by assertive Democrats hoping to pursue their own agenda, Call conceded. Republicans are even braced for Democrats to push for a vote of no confidence on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.