Currently, lawmakers may accept fees and other outside earnings equaling 30 percent of their Congressional salary.

Many experts say neither the public nor future lawmakers will accept such severe austerity.

The lawmakers did not accept the administration's proposal to convert the program into a block grant to states with a $1 billion cut in financing.

Investigators are examining whether the arrangement was intended to bypass Senate limits on speaking fees that lawmakers can accept.

Republican aides said it was not clear whether the lawmakers would accept the offer or come up with a counter proposal.

But the two sides declined to adopt major new restrictions on the gifts that lawmakers can accept from lobbyists.

But the lawmakers did not accept an amendment that Governor Whitman had said she would insist upon before signing such a bill.

But in an era of sacrifice, lawmakers are accepting the need to trim fat.

Even when lawmakers accept a more expensive gift, they have an out.

Mario Cuomo vetoed the same police bill repeatedly when he was in office, and the lawmakers always accepted his decision as final.