House and Senate officials are trying to iron out a last-minute flu readiness plan before Congress adjourns for the year. Bush requested $7.1 billion in emergency spending to pay for the plan when he unveiled it in November.

But several sources familiar with talks said that GOP lawmakers concerned about curbing government spending are pushing to authorize only $3.5 billion for the plan this week. The White House would then have to come back to Congress in 2006 for the balance of the readiness funds.

"People are referring to it as half a loaf," an aide to a senior Senate Democrat told UPI.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters last week that he wants Congress to spend the full $7.1 billion requested by the White House. A senior Frist aide said Tuesday that the senator continues to push for the full amount and that funding levels "are a topic of ongoing discussion."

Lawmakers are moving to attach the flu readiness money to a defense spending bill funding the Pentagon and war efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats have complained about using such "must pass" legislation for the plan, which includes a controversial provision granting broad lawsuit protections for pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines and drugs used during a pandemic or bioterrorist attack.

Those Democrats have been pushing for a fund to cover the lost wages or medical costs of health workers and others who could be injured during mass vaccinations during a national medical emergency.

Republican and Democratic aides said Wednesday that GOP lawmakers were moving to keep the compensation fund out of the bill because of uncertainty about how such a fund would operate under an as-yet-unknown emergency scenario.

"If you pass it now, you're just guessing" about how the fund would work, a pharmaceutical lobbyist familiar with the negotiations said. "If there is an attack or a pandemic, the Congress will launch the countermeasures first and then provide a compensation fund," said the lobbyist, who also confirmed that Republicans were pushing for $3.5 billion in spending for the plan.

Still, the news enraged Democrats, who say the fund is key to protecting the livelihood of workers who may be injured by largely untested emergency vaccines or drugs.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., issued a statement accusing Republicans of offering pharmaceutical manufacturers "an outrageous giveaway."

"Congress should reject any back-room deal that gives a free pass to companies that act irresponsibly or denies fair compensation to injured patients," the statement said.

The senior Frist aide denied that the compensation fund is off the table. "We're not going to rule anything in or anything out," the aide told UPI.

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