On Capitol Hill, the House and Senate included a measure in the $284 billion omnibus spending bill that would block the implementation of the Federal Communications Commission new rules regulating media ownership. By including the provision in a major spending bill, it sets up a potential battle with the White House which has vowed to veto any effort to roll back the media ownership laws. But now President Bush can only do that by vetoing the entire spending bill.

In another setback to President Bush, lawmakers prevented an effort by House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay to include a provision within the spending bill that would have allowed the nation’s overtime laws to be rewritten. Up to 8 million working Americans could have lost overtime pay.