Politics Digest:

HEALTH-CARE BILL

Accord on Tax Increase

Top House Democrats agreed yesterday to raise taxes on the nation's highest-earning families to help pay for a sweeping expansion of the U.S. health-care system, and the idea could be put to a vote in a key committee as soon as next week.

The plan would impose a graduated surcharge on income over $350,000 for families and $280,000 for individuals, according to Democratic sources. Families earning $350,000 to $500,000 would face a surcharge of 1 percent beginning in 2011, and families earning more than $1 million would face a surcharge of about 3 percent. Those percentages could rise in 2013 if lawmakers think additional cash is needed to cover the costs of reform.

Combined with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts next year, the plan would leave the nation's highest earners facing a top tax rate of more than 50 percent in many states, according to the nonprofit Tax Foundation. But the plan would raise about $550 billion over the next decade, Democrats said -- about half the cost of reforms that are expected to cost about $1 trillion. Much of the rest of the money would come from cuts to Medicare and other federal health programs.

The agreement ends days of wrangling in the House over how to pay for President's Obama's signature domestic initiative.

In the Senate, though, the debate over funding remains bogged down.

-- Lori Montgomery

ETHICS

Limits in Probes Ruled

A federal appeals court has ruled that information a lawmaker discloses in a congressional ethics probe cannot be used against him in a criminal investigation.

The ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit came in the case of former representative Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). He was investigated in connection with a 2003 golf trip to Scotland that was financed by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

-- Maria Glod