WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators reached agreement yesterday on a $286 billion highway and mass transit bill, ending a nearly two-year standoff that has stalled construction projects and new safety programs.

The House is expected to vote today on the bill, which replaces a $218 billion, six-year program that expired in September 2003.

In the last session of Congress, the House sought as much as $375 billion for the bill, citing the importance of fixing deteriorating highways and bridges that are blamed for thousands of fatal traffic accidents every year. But with the federal budget deficit reaching record levels, the White House insisted on a far lower level, and threatened that the president would veto any bill that added to the deficit or increased taxes.

Senate delays

estate-tax vote

The Senate won't vote on repealing the estate tax until at least September, Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday.

The six-week delay would give Finance Committee leaders more time to negotiate an alternative measure that would limit the reach of the estate tax so that only a few thousand of the wealthiest families have to pay it. The delay also gives supporters of full repeal, such as the National Federation of Independent Business, more time to lobby senators to vote to abolish it.

The estate tax is being phased out until 2010, when it will be repealed for one year. Unless Congress acts, the tax is scheduled to return in 2011, with rates as high as 55 percent on estates valued at more than $1 million.

Opponents try

to amend gun bill

Gun-control advocates in the Senate, unable to halt a bill that would shield the firearms industry from some lawsuits, tried unsuccessfully yesterday to put some gun-safety measures in the measure.

With a clear majority of the Senate backing it, the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" appears set to pass the Senate within the next few days. It is a top priority of the National Rifle Association, and the White House has strongly endorsed it.

Critics acknowledged that they were not likely to be able to defeat the bill, but they had hoped through amendments to try to create an opportunity to vote on other firearms-related measures such as requiring background checks at gun shows or limiting sales of .50-caliber military sniper rifles. But Senate Republican leaders used procedural moves to block the amendments.

Medical-error system

reaches Bush's desk

A national system designed to increase reporting of medical errors won final congressional approval yesterday and was sent to President Bush.

It is estimated that more than 250 Americans die every day as a result of preventable medical errors. Health-care officials say increased reporting of such errors would make it easier to spot trends and find solutions, but the current environment punishes openness because reporting such errors could lead to the loss of credentials or a lawsuit.

Under the legislation approved overwhelmingly by the House, health-care officials would voluntarily report medical errors to patient-safety organizations, which would use a network of computer databases to analyze the information and make recommendations on ways to improve health care. The information would be treated as privileged and confidential.

FBI bogged down

in translation

The FBI backlog of untranslated audio recordings from terrorism and espionage investigations grew markedly in the past year, the Justice Department's internal watchdog said yesterday.

"The FBI's collection of audio material continues to outpace its ability to review and translate all that material," Inspector General Glenn Fine said in a report released at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

His findings were similar in a July 2004 audit, except that he said the FBI now does a better job prioritizing its translation work. The bureau no longer is running behind on intercepts relating to al-Qaida cases, the report said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, testifying at the same hearing, said much of the backlog is in obscure languages for which translators are hard to find.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters