When the regulatory relief bill passed the House last winter, only two Republicans broke ranks.

As was true on Wednesday, the first day of debate on the relief bill, practically none of those expenses were debated today.

They accused Democrats of sneaking the program into the relief bill because it could not otherwise pass.

Two weeks ago Congress passed a $15 billion relief bill to assist farmers who are facing a fourth year of economic downturn.

Mr. Fitzwater said the relief bill would probably carry a price tag of about $5.5 billion.

President Reagan signed a drought- relief bill that would provide individual farmers with up to $100,000 in aid.

President Bush plans to tour the devastated areas of South Carolina, where he will sign the relief bill, on Friday.

She was granted a stay of deportation after a private relief bill was introduced in the Senate in 2003 because of her son's medical needs.

As for the bromide about a "lawyers' relief bill," a generation of civil rights laws has empowered lawyers without making them rich.

It is, incidentally, the kind of "private relief bill" that some politicians wanted for Elian Gonzalez.