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Republicans Press Tax, Medicare Issues
Also driving the massive bill forward was an effort to forestall a 5 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors and a plan to open more than 8 million acres along the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.
But Democrats criticized Republicans for giving up on legislation funding more than $460 billion in unfinished agency budgets, requiring passage of a third stopgap spending bill to keep the government running.
  Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006 after attending a meeting between President Bush and members of Congress. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP) 
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The House and Senate planned votes Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
Government agencies, except for the Defense and Homeland Security departments, have been on autopilot at or below 2006 budget levels since the new spending year began Oct. 1.
The clampdown is affecting agencies such as Veterans Affairs, which would receive a $3.1 billion influx for medical care under its moribund budget bill. Lawmakers promised the VA would get more flexibility to work around the problem, but veterans groups are upset.
Democrats are unhappy that the budget mess is being dropped in their laps next year, when it promises to clutter their early agenda as the new majority.
"They are going to leave a mess as they go out," said Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "It's been a do-nothing Congress, and as they go out the door, they are going to validate the decision of the American people that change was necessary."
Besides the sales tax and research tax breaks, the tax and trade legislation would extend:
_ A tax deduction on college tuition.
_ A tax credit for hiring welfare recipients and others facing hardships finding jobs.
_ Tax credits for alternative energy producers and purchases of solar energy equipment by homeowners and businesses.
The breaks are supported by both parties. But efforts to extend them have been thwarted by moves to link them to other, more contentious bills. They include trade legislation affecting textile imports from Haiti and an abandoned coal mine reclamation program, estimated to cost up to $5 billion over 10 years.
The Vietnam bill would end the Cold War requirement that trade with the communist state be reviewed every year. While supported by the Bush administration, the proposal has run into opposition from critics of Vietnam's human rights record and those worried about the impact on American jobs.
The trade package also would extend or expand trade breaks for Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and Andean nations, again drawing opposition from supporters of the beleaguered U.S. textile industry.
Also still on the agenda was congressional approval of an agreement with India that would allow the United States to ship civilian nuclear fuel and technology to that country.
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