Now, as they take up a White House request to fund the war, lawmakers are showing greater willingness to stand up to the popular war-time president -- if only on the margins of the massive spending bill.

Legislators said they will give the White House all of the 75 billion dollars requested for war in Iraq and related costs -- possibly sealing the deal late Thursday.

But they also planned to push through -- against the wishes of the White House -- billions of dollars for US airline aid and other items they deem essential to US security.

Lawmakers also sharply curtailed the president's request for unrestricted freedom to spend its war chest -- offering the White House a pointed reminder that Congress controls the nation's purse strings.

In hearings over the past several days, a steady stream of top aides to President George W. Bush administration officials asked for latitude to spend the funds how and when they wish.

"Nice try," sneered Congressman Mark Steven Kirk, during a hearing on the spending plan. "There are a lot of precedents we don't want to accept here," the Illinois Republican said.

That view was seconded by Senator Robert Byrd, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

"Handing a blank check to the secretary of defense or homeland security or the attorney general without specifying how it is to be spent is not a responsible exercise of the congressional power of the purse," Byrd said.

Congress was also expected to overrule the Bush administration by voting provide a three-billion-dollar aid package to the foundering airline industry.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist conceded that "the White House did not feel that aviation had to be addressed," but said lawmakers from both parties felt is was imperative to shore up the ailing airline industry.

"Congress is going to speak pretty loudly" on the issue, the Tennessee senator said.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats this week added billions in proposed homeland security funding to the spending plan -- also against the wishes of the president.

"We need to apply the same vigilance and commitment that we're showing abroad to our anti-terrorism efforts here at home," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said, while his colleague New York Senator Charles Schumer derided the Bush administration for what he views as its lackluster record homeland defense.

"They're just laggard in fighting the war here at home," said Schumer.

Having granted Bush the authority to wage war back in October, most members said their role was to close ranks around their commander-in-chief -- thereby also showing support to US troops in the Gulf.

Some of the harshest critics of Congress's silence said the US legislature appeared to have lost its relevance during one of the most important and divisive debates in several years in the United States.

For all the harsh talk on budget matters however, most lawmakers still are reluctant to say anything that might remotely smack of criticism of how the war is being prosecuted.

An exception is a small but vocal contingent of Democrats, led by Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio -- a declared candidate for the White House in 2004 -- who has issued almost weekly statements denouncing the war as "unjustified."

SPACE.WIRE