The measure, approved on a near party-line vote of 243 to 183, is a top priority for the American Medical Association. The GOP contended that Democrats supported the bill to thank the doctors group for backing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The Democrat's $849 billion measure is designed to remake the nation's health care system, relying on cuts in future Medicare spending to cover costs — as well as on higher payroll taxes for the well-to-do and a new levy on patients undergoing elective cosmetic surgery.

"Failure is not an option," Holder declared.

The investigation, still in the planning stages, would be a broad examination ranging beyond the specific case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the killings, officials said. The inquiry, they said, could look at personnel policies and the availability of mental health services for troubled troops.

Clinton, an influential voice in deliberations about whether to add large numbers of U.S. troops to an unpopular eight-year war, said Afghan President Hamid Karzai can do more to reduce corruption and go after those who may have looted U.S. aid in the past.

The legislation would expand insurance coverage to an estimated 32 million people who now lack it, according to the report, creating a demand for services that "could be difficult to meet initially ... and could lead to price-increases, cost-shifting and/or changes in providers' willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage."

They're blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists, petitions, letters and phone calls in efforts to defeat the restrictions in the Senate, where debate could begin in a few days. They also have a larger goal: to prove that with their Democratic allies in control of the White House and both congressional chambers — but increasingly appealing to conservative voters who back abortion limits — they still have clout.

The Obama administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court late Friday saying that Gates has invoked new powers blocking the release of the photos.

Doubt it, consider this — lawmakers are anxiously awaiting Congressional Budget Office calculations on the Senate health care bill, and debate on the historic measure can't start in earnest until the agency renders its verdict.

Americans ranging from 12-year-old ballplayers to softballing senior citizens are visiting the communist island to engage in their own kind of field work, and there's talk of another trip by a major league team.

Napolitano, designated by President Barack Obama to lead the administration's efforts to overhaul immigration laws, said many members of Congress had said they could support an update of immigration laws, but only after border security improved, Napolitano said.

The Food and Drug Administration said it would put the proposal on hold while it studies ways to make the popular shellfish safer.

It was the first time since 2004 that soldier suicides in Iraq did not increase. Self-inflicted deaths in Afghanistan were on track to go up this year.

Mrs. Obama also acknowledged the sacrifices that troops and their families endure under combat, saying they are "a tiny fraction of our population bearing the burden of eight years of war, serving tour after tour of duty, missing out on birthdays and anniversaries and those precious moments with the people that they love most."

The Food and Drug Administration will convene a two-day meeting beginning Thursday to hear the drug industry's position on Internet marketing. The agency has agreed to consider developing rules for online advertising after companies complained that the current guidelines for traditional media — which require a detailed list of possible side effects — have left them hamstrung on the Web.

These officials said one of the options Reid has had under review would raise the payroll tax that goes to Medicare, but only on income above $250,000 a year. Current law sets the tax at 1.45 percent of income, an amount matched by employers.

The Obama administration was opening the competition Thursday for grants it wants used for ideas like charter schools or judging teachers based on student test scores. Applications are due in January and the first round of grants will go out in April.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will discuss the four scenarios with his national security team on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Fort Hood, Texas, Gibbs would not offer details about those options. He insisted that Obama has not made a decision about troop deployments.

"It's not important to be perfect here. It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling," the former president told reporters after the closed-door meeting, held on the cusp of Senate debate on intensely controversial legislation. The House cleared its version of the bill late Saturday night on a narrow, party-line vote of 220-215.

The 1,136-page bill, released by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, would represent a significant shift in power in federal oversight of the U.S. market. The Fed has been a dominant figure in managing the economy, although many lawmakers blame the central bank for not doing enough to prevent last year's crisis.

President Barack Obama will send envoy Stephen Bosworth, although no date for his trip has been set, the officials said. The officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced.

An investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year, 10 to 20 times. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Monday he could not support a bill unless it clearly prohibits federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment similar to the one passed by the House this weekend.

Officials says the former president is scheduled to speak during the Democrats' weekly caucus. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity late Monday because they were not authorized to discuss the former president's schedule.

The posting on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Netanyahu reiterated to an assembly of Jewish groups his view that peace negotiations should begin with no preconditions. He made no new proposals on constraining Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order creating the Council on Veterans Employment, part of an initiative to encourage federal agencies to recruit and train military veterans. The effort also aims to bring more veterans into the federal work force and help newly hired veterans adjust to working in a civilian environment.

The 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.

Most Americans would be required to carry insurance and large employers would be obliged to cover their employees.

Shortly before beginning its vote on a Democratic plan, the chamber voted 258-176 against a GOP version that would have lowered costs for people with insurance but done little or nothing to expand coverage to those without any. Rep. Timothy Johnson, R-Ill., opposed the measure and was the only lawmaker to cross party lines.

After months of struggle, Speaker Nancy Pelosi projected confidence and likened the bill to the creation of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.

He praised those who ended the shootings, which killed 13 and wounded 30 others, and lauded the armed services' diversity — a move designed to calm tensions about the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

After meeting for nearly an hour with House Democrats, Obama went to the White House Rose Garden and said opportunities like passing a major health overhaul "come around maybe once in a generation."

A vote is expected on Saturday — after President Barack Obama makes a late morning trip to the Capitol to make one final pitch for the legislation.

President Barack Obama lobbied by phone to save his top domestic priority, an expansion of coverage that Democrats have sought for more than a half-century.

Army Col. John Rossi, deputy commander at Fort Hood, confirmed at a news conference late Friday in Texas that the two weapons carried by Hasan were not military arms, but "privately owned weapons ... purchased locally."

President Barack Obama signed a joint resolution of the Senate and the House that made Pulaski an honorary citizen.

Obama met at the White House with several Hispanic lawmakers who oppose any prohibition on the ability of illegal immigrants to use their own money to purchase health coverage in a new government-run marketplace.

Obama had planned to head to the Capitol on Friday. Now the White House schedule shows Obama planning to visit the Capitol on Saturday.

"They say people won't walk a mile to vote for you but they'll walk 100 miles to vote against you," said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat who won his Alabama seat with just 52 percent of the vote last year. "Well, people walked 100 miles Tuesday."