Washington ? Terrorism, torture and modest tax cuts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast dot the agenda for the Republican-controlled Congress at the end of a year scarred by scandal. GOP leaders are working to salvage as much as possible from a conservative blueprint drafted in more favorable political times.

Long gone is an overhaul of Social Security, which flopped within weeks of President Bush’s nationally televised summons to action last winter. An ambitious plan to pare $35 billion or more from the growth of food stamps, health care for the poor and other federal benefit programs may slip to next year in the face of solid Democratic opposition.

Legislation to open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling faces delay, if not death, at the hands of critics in both parties. “It is still a sticking point,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters Tuesday.

There are others.

Rep. Roy Blunt, the acting House majority leader, strongly suggested the leadership on his side of the Capitol felt no urgency to rush a year-end series of bills to Bush’s desk.

He noted that lawmakers are merely at the midpoint of a two-year term, and said he’d rather defer action on key measures such as the deficit-cutting bill if the alternative meant “we’d have to give up our negotiating position on a number of issues” when it comes to the Senate. “I think it’s better to get that right than to get that quickly,” he said.

Frist said his top pre-adjournment priorities include renewal of the Patriot Act, which he called a “very good, very strong bill.” The measure was first passed in 2001 to strengthen the hand of law enforcement agencies after the terrorist attacks.

The White House supports the bill, and House passage seems likely today. But an effort to block it in the Senate gained strength when Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced he would join critics from both parties in a filibuster. A test vote is expected Friday.

Critics, arguing the bill shortchanges civil liberties, favor a three-month extension of the expiring law to leave time for changes in the longer-term measure that Bush wants.

Frist, R-Tenn., also said, “We will not leave here without a substantial … tax package” to help rebuild the Gulf Coast region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The House and Senate passed separate but similar packages with about $7 billion in tax incentives and tax-exempt bonds targeted to the region.

But a second bill, to cut taxes on capital gains and dividends, is unlikely to clear this year. And legislation to prevent an estimated 15 million individuals and families from coming under the coverage of the alternative minimum tax – and paying higher taxes as a result – is likely to wait until 2006, Frist added.