Putin responded to these sanctions by refusing to allow travel to Russia by House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, and Sen. John McCain, as well as other senators and administration officials.
Senators and administration officials visiting the southern Louisiana town of Galliano lashed out again at BP on Monday, saying they were "beyond patience" with the company.
When asked which senators the administration most listens to on financial matters, a top Obama economic official listed Mr. Reed as one.
President Bush has set aside his most ambitious plans to give federal money to religious charities and instead will support a watered-down version of his religion-based initiative, senators and administration officials say.
Disturbed by lawsuits that he contends mainly enrich lawyers, Mr. Greenberg said he met with half a dozen senators and administration officials last week about limiting the basis for suits and capping awards to plaintiffs.
For many senators, the administration's unyielding approach to postwar reconstruction could not be reconciled with the waves of opposition that their constituents have voiced in the five weeks since Mr. Bush announced his intention of spending $87 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Cohen told senators that administration officials are gradually breaking through that opposition, though no nation has asked to join the system, and only Australia has expressed support for it.
A character who is tortured eventually gives a crucial tip that leads to the capture and killing of bin Laden -- a plot detail that has drawn harsh condemnation from senators and administration officials.
Kennedy was known for his effectiveness in dealing with Republican senators and administrations, sometimes to the irritation of other Democrats.
What follows is an unofficial transcript, produced by me, of the exchange between Senator Warren and Obama administration officials in the hearing.
