The Senate defied the White House Tuesday with a bipartisan vote to require a temporary halt to the oil deposits in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as the House prepared to pass its own mandate later in the day.

      The Senate by 97-1 adopted an amendment to unrelated legislation that would temporarily suspend shipments to the SPR.

     But when Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried to call up a freestanding bill that contained a similar temporary halt, in hopes that the House could clear the bill for the White House within 24 hours, Republicans objected.

     "Stop putting oil underground," urged Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D. "We can increase the supply by 70,000 barrels a day of sweet light crude, the most valuable oil, instead of putting it underground."

     The House planned to vote later on a freestanding bill under suspension of the rules, an expedited procedure that bars amendments and requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

     Dorgan said he also will offer the SPR provision as an amendment during a Thursday markup of the emergency supplemental war funding bill, which is expected to make it to the president's desk within a few weeks.

     "It's more steps as an amendment on flood insurance. It's faster on the supplemental," said Dorgan.

     The White House opposes any suspension of oil deposits in the SPR. President Bush argues that such a step would have little or no affect on gasoline prices, given the tiny fraction of world oil supplies that would be freed up.

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     The Senate passed a measure Tuesday to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program and reauthorize it for five years.

     The measure, which passed by a vote of 92-6, would forgive a $17.5 billion debt to the Treasury that the program incurred after the 2005 hurricane season.

     "It is a strong, bipartisan bill that enhances the long-term viability of the National Flood Insurance Program, helping to provide critical insurance coverage for millions of homes and businesses throughout the country," said Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

     Dodd has called the debt-forgiveness provision a critical element toward putting the program back on sound financial footing. But the provision is likely to cause problems under Democratic pay-as-you-go budget rules. The House-passed version of the bill would not forgive the debt.

     Lawmakers want to complete work on the bill before hurricane season this year, which officially begins June 1. After the catastrophic Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005, the program was overwhelmed with claims that far outstripped its premium income. The program's authorization expires at the end of 2008. The new bill would last through 2013.

     The legislation includes a new requirement that residents in areas behind levees and dams buy flood insurance. Premiums would be phased in over two years.

     The bill also would update the nation's flood maps through the establishment of a 13-member Technical Mapping Advisory Council and by authorizing $2 billion. It would remove the limitation on state contributions for updating flood maps.

     The bill would phase out subsidized rates on vacation homes and allow premiums to increase up to 15 percent per year, up from 10 percent.

     Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus sought Tuesday to find bipartisan agreement that could anchor major tax legislation in the next Congress.

     Declaring the income tax base "corroded" and "falling apart," Baucus, D-Mont., asked witnesses at a hearing on tax overhaul for areas where policy makers could reach consensus.

     Witnesses said the country could benefit from a simpler tax system with a broader base, lower rates and more uniform rules.

     "If you could get it simple and even, you'd probably get a long way toward a consensus," said William Gale of the Brookings Institution.

     The details, of course, are always more difficult.

     Both Congress and the new president must address the tax code next year. Nearly all major elements of the income tax code affecting individuals -- provisions enacted by a Republican Congress in concert with President Bush in 2001 and 2003 -- expire Dec. 31, 2010.

     If Congress fails to act, individual income tax rates will rise, along with taxes on dividends, capital gains and estates.

     But under congressional budget rules adopted by Democrats in the current Congress, any extension of the tax cuts would have to be offset with new revenues from elsewhere.

     Democrats have repeatedly urged an increase in taxes on the wealthiest Americans to underwrite the continuation of lower rates for everyone else.

     Senators also questioned whether and how they should mix changes to the health-care system with tax law, both of which are likely to be high priorities after the election. The two issues are linked already, because employer-provided health insurance subsidies are excluded from individual income.

     Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., sounded intrigued but daunted.

     "We're going to have to do it, with health and energy and tax reform," he said. "I don't know how."

     Baucus nodded. "It's going to be interesting," he said.

     Despite some last minute budgeting complications, the conference report on a massive new five-year farm bill will be filed Tuesday, setting up votes as early as Wednesday in both chambers.

     The Senate was expected to adopt the conference report on the bill by a wide margin --possibly enough to override a threatened presidential veto. But the margin in the House is less certain. Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would vote against the bill, and some liberal Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans are also expected to do so.

     "We believe that the farm bill that's currently being considered by Congress is bad for the American taxpayers," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "It still doesn't do enough. It still has too much spending, and not enough reform."

     The farm bill would spend more than $280 billion over five years, and would reauthorize crop subsidies, food stamps, and other food related entitlement programs. It would provide a huge increase for nutrition programs over current spending, a focus that will help it win votes from urban Democrats in the House who might otherwise have little reason to back the measure.

     After almost a year and a half of negotiations, Agriculture Committee members agreed to impose some new limits on crop subsidies that they hoped would win votes and satisfy the White House. The most dramatic changes are meant to prevent wealthy farmers from collecting government dollars. People with more than $500,000 in non-farm related income would not be able to collect any subsidies, while those making more than $750,000 in farm-related income would no longer be eligible for direct payments, subsidies that farmers get no matter what.

     The Senate on Tuesday agreed to consider bipartisan legislation to extend collective bargaining rights to police and firefighters in states that do not currently offer such labor protections.

     By 69-29, senators agreed to invoke cloture, and thus limit debate, on a motion to proceed to consideration of the measure, which the House passed last summer by 314-97.

     In both chambers, there was unusual Republican support for a bill backed by labor unions and their Democratic allies; 98 House Republicans voted for the bill in that chamber, and 18 Senate Republicans joined in the vote to limit debate and call up the measure.

     The vote suggests that there will be sufficient support to pass the measure, possibly by enough votes to surmount a threatened presidential veto. The measure would give police and fire fighters the right to unionize -- but not strike -- in any municipality with a population of more than 5,000.

     "Collective bargaining is good for our national security and it's good for public safety officers," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. "These heroic men and women deserve more than just our gratitude and respect. They deserve the right to be treated fairly on the job."

     The White House leveled a veto threat against the bill in a statement of administration policy, and also questioned whether it is constitutional.

     Of the 11 Republican cosponsors, five are up for re-election in 2008, and another four face contests in 2010. Many received low ratings from the AFL-CIO in its most recent scoring of lawmakers' voting record on labor-related issues.

     But while certain senators may be courting support from police and fire unions, which strongly back the bill, mayors and other local leaders in the affected states oppose the measure, saying it could impose runaway costs on local governments.

     "I think many of them were led to believe that this was a free vote," said Neil Bomberg, chief legislative counsel for the National League of Cities, which opposes the bill.

     The Burlington Free Press reports that Democratic state House Speaker Gaye Symington announced Monday that she would seek Vermont's governor's seat. She "made it a three-way race...as she takes on three-term incumbent Republican Jim Douglas of Middlebury and Progressive Anthony Pollina of Middlesex," the newspaper reports. Symington highlighted the growing disparity between high- and low-income Vermonters, of crumbling roads and bridges and of a lack of a plan for Vermont's energy future as reasons for her to seek the seat.

     The Detroit News reports that Republican State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk made official Monday his candidacy to unseat incumbent Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Hoogendyk turned in more than 30,000 nominating petition signatures. "Hoogendyk, 52, from Portage, held a brief press conference outside the state election office Monday. He said he's raised $100,000, had the help of 400 volunteers and gathered double the number of signatures needed -- and from every county -- in the last three months," the newspaper reports. "Hoogendyk promised a tough campaign against the popular, 74-year-old Levin, who chairs the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. Levin also filed for re-election Monday." Levin has a warchest of about $5 million.

      Foster's (N.H.) Daily Democrat reports that former New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen, a Republican, launched Monday his bid to win the GOP primary for the 1st Congressional District. Stephen will take on former Rep. Jeb Bradley (2003-2007), who defeated Stephen in 2002 for the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. Bradley was unseated by Shea-Porter in 2006.

     When was the last time Mississippi's 1st Congressional District was held by a Democrat?

     a. 1995

     b. 1985

     c. 1973

     d. 1969

     Answer: a

     Jamie L. Whitten served the 1st from 1973-95. As a popular incumbent, he might have been there longer had he not chosen to retire at the end of his 1992-94 term. Republican Roger Wicker was elected to the seat and he was there until he was appointed to fill the seat of Trent Lott, who resigned in December, 2007.

     Whitten represented Mississipppi's 2nd District 1941-73 and is the longest-serving U.S. representative ever, having served more than 26 terms -- 53 years and 3 months. He was first elected to the House after incumbent Rep.Wall Doxey moved to the Senate in a special election. Whitten died in September 1995, just 9 months after he left office, at the age of 85.

     Wicker was the first Republican to represent the 1st District since 1873.