To try to insure passage of contentious legislation, Republicans - and Democrats, too, when they controlled the House and the Senate - frequently attached it to more popular or urgent bills.

The bill's future is also complicated by 2004 being an election year, because contentious legislation can be difficult to enact when the parties are jockeying for advantage and unwilling to hand the opposition any successes.

Any contentious legislation was likely to be defeated at the committee stage and everyone knew it.

The leadership has been reluctant to bring the benefits to a vote independently because they could be used to help advance more contentious legislation, like the cut in the estate tax sought by Republicans.

He was also involved in the contentious legislation for Catholic emancipation, finally passed in 1829.

And the GOP majority is so thin and fractured that passing contentious legislation was almost certainly impossible, even if there had been time.

He also raised the prospect that the cuts and other contentious legislation could be delayed until next year while Congress took care of must-pass spending issues.

Another piece of contentious legislation that I oppose is H.R. 45, "Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act."

Family-Leave Bill Vetoed It is the second piece of contentious legislation that Mr. Bush has rejected in the last few days.

Garcia also sponsored contentious legislation during the 2007 session to amend Colorado's labor laws to ease restrictions on the formation of closed shop unions.