US: While Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives celebrated the approval yesterday of almost $40bn in spending cuts over five years, the Senate was still struggling to resolve disputes over the Patriot Act and oil exploration in Alaska.
Senate leaders were trying to resolve an impasse over renewal of the Patriot Act, enacted quickly after the September 11th attacks in 2001 to give law enforcement officials broad powers to investigate suspected terrorists. Most provisions of the Act expire at the end of the year.
Last week, emboldened by revelations that President Bush had authorised secret domestic surveillance, several Republicans joined Democrats to deny the Republican leadership the 60 votes needed to move ahead with a final vote on renewal of the law.
Forty senators have endorsed a plan to extend the law by three months. This is to allow time to deal with concerns that it gives the administration too much power to demand business and personal records, without appropriate oversight or review.
The Senate is expected to vote on final approval of the spending cuts package early this week. But some lawmakers are trying to take advantage of legislation that is considered essential to win approval of other, more controversial provisions.
The most glaring example came with the defence spending Bill, which the House approved by a wide margin early yesterday.
After the failure of earlier efforts to win approval to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, congressional leaders attached the measure to the defence Bill.
The drilling provision is a priority for Mr Bush, but many Democrats have long argued that exploration would threaten the environmentally sensitive area.
Financial Times