WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats threatened yesterday to block the confirmations of President Bush's nominees to head the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said they were placing parliamentary holds on the confirmation of Stephen Johnson as EPA administrator because he had not canceled a controversial program that would pay families to videotape the effect of pesticide exposure on infants through routine spraying in their homes.

In a separate move, Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said they would block the confirmation of Lester Crawford as FDA administrator because of the agency's delay in deciding whether to approve the "morning-after" birth-control pill for sale without a prescription.

Senators maneuver over defense spending

Senators voted yesterday to cut some defense money from a nearly $81 billion measure that President Bush and the House wanted to pay for wars and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee strips an immigration overhaul and border-security measure the House had added. It also restores money the House had cut for a U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and some for aid for Afghanistan.

The maneuvering means congressional negotiators from each chamber will have to settle their differences when they write the final bill this spring. The House passed its bill last month; the Senate is expected to vote next week.

Legislation extends daylight-saving time

Lawmakers crafting energy legislation approved an amendment yesterday to extend daylight-saving time by several weeks, having it start on the first Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in November.

"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who co-sponsored the measure. He cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day. The country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.

The amendment was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is putting together major parts of energy legislation likely to come up for a vote in the full House in the coming weeks.

Also

Bolton hearing: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed until Monday a hearing on John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The hearing had been scheduled for today.

Hastert surgery: House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was recovering yesterday at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland after kidney-stone surgery.

FERC chairman: The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said yesterday he will step down when his term expires in June. Pat Wood's aggressive push for increased federal oversight of power lines put him at odds with many members of Congress.