Eye on Washington

Medicaid cuts are OK'd, agencies tussle over how to sell cold remedies, and a smallpox vaccination program ends.

Like most Americans, members of Congress prefer to be home for Christmas-and tend to stay there until well into January. Senators with a seat on the Judiciary Committee returned to Washington earlier this new year to probe Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.,'s qualifications for a seat on the Supreme Court and hold hearings on the constitutionality of eavesdropping on Americans by the National Security Agency. But all members of Congress will be in their seats in time for President George W. Bush's State of the Union address.