WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans are striving to pass a deficit reduction bill to curb spending on Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies. On a parallel track they are succeeding in their drive to freeze many agency budgets funded through annual spending bills.The two-pronged effort was coming to a head as early as Thursday. Votes loomed on a budget-cut plan that is a pillar of the GOP's agenda as well as on a separate spending bill cutting money below last year's levels for the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services.Both votes presented a challenge for House leaders such as Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois. Hastert has been working hard to salvage the deficit reduction plan, hoping to avoid a repeat of last week's embarrassing setback when a revolt by party moderates over the proposed cuts in social programs delayed a final vote.The bill would trim about $50 billion over five years from programs like Medicaid whose budgets increase automatically every year. The proposed savings are modest considering the $14 trillion the government is set to spend during the five-year period.Still, the budget bill has run into fierce resistance from Republicans unhappy with limiting eligibility for food stamps, curbing student loan subsidies and requiring Medicaid beneficiaries to pay for a fraction of their health care."There is no question we are having a difficult time rounding up the votes," said GOP Rep. Jim Nussle of Iowa, chairman of the House Budget Committee.Wooing moderatesGOP leaders early Thursday made modest changes to the bill in an attempt to ease moderates' concerns. Dropped from the measure is a proposal raising copayments from $3 to $5 for the very poorest Medicaid beneficiaries and a provision that would have denied free school lunches to about 40,000 children whose parents would lose their food stamps. A provision denying Medicaid nursing home benefits to people with home equity of $500,000 would be modified by raising the cap to $750,000.Last week, GOP leaders dropped plans to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling and to allow states to lift a moratorium on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.As Nussle and other GOP leaders have struggled to find the final mix of spending cuts for the deficit-reduction plan, the chamber's powerful appropriators have made steady progress in their goal of passing 11 separate spending bills for the budget year that began October 1.Though they've blown the October. 1 deadline, as is the case most years, the appropriators have managed to avoid producing another embarrassing, hastily assembled omnibus bill, a win for freshman Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-California.And Lewis has defied convention by winning passage of bills that, taken as a whole, freeze the budgets for most domestic agencies except Homeland Security Department.Still, stopgap funds will be needed to keep many agencies running past a Friday deadline.And while all of the domestic spending bills should be cleared before Thanksgiving, the defense spending bill is on hold until next month, to the embarrassment of GOP leaders.The Pentagon worries that further delays in defense spending boosts could have a harmful impact on some operations.Tough votes aheadThe vote on the labor, health and education bill won't be easy, especially since about $1 billion worth of lawmakers' cherished hometown projects and grants -- commonly called "earmarks" -- were dropped from the bill to avoid more severe budgets for heating subsidies, the Centers for Disease Control and the Head Start preschool education program, among others."Had the $1 billion been spent on earmarks, we would have sustained intolerable cuts," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, lead Senate negotiator on the spending bill.The separate budget cut plan is the first effort in eight years to take on the automatic growth of mandatory programs like Medicaid, which make up about 55 percent of the budget. By comparison, the annual appropriations bills fund about one-third of the budget.Unlike last week, when it was clear that Republicans were struggling to find the votes before pulling the budget measure from the House floor, GOP leaders and staff aides are cautiously optimistic they will succeed."We're always making progress, everyday," Hastert said. "Sometimes it's inches. Sometimes it's feet. Sometimes it's backward."Still, it is not difficult to find Republicans who oppose the bill.Rep. John McHugh, R-New York, said he had "significant problems" with the measure, and all three Connecticut Republicans have signaled opposition.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.