Friday looms large for lobbyists: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) set that deadline for bills to be through committee and on the floor if they are to be voted on this year.

With most spending measures outstanding and a major energy bill Democratic leaders are keen on passing, there will be little floor time after lawmakers return from Thanksgiving break for much else in the final stretch of the session.

“There would be no initiated legislation out of the House after the 16th of November,” Hoyer said.

The end-of-session crush comes with a bitter irony for lobbyists. As legislation important to their clients moves closer to final-draft form, their ability to influence the outcome is often diminished. Staffers and members huddle amongst themselves. Hill contacts often go dark.

Rumors swirled last week, for instance, that the energy bill could be on the House floor this week. Measures to raise fuel efficiency standards, put new mandates on power generation by renewable sources and require refiners to blend greater amounts of ethanol into their fuel are under consideration.

But several energy lobbyists said there was little information emanating from Capitol Hill about possible compromises between the House and Senate. At the end of last week, an energy breakthrough seemed unlikely to materialize by Thanksgiving.

There is also opportunity in the chaos. Omnibus spending measures, for example, are famous for additions in the late hours to secure a lawmaker’s vote. But Democratic leaders have promised to cut down on the number of earmarks and prevent additions in conference that weren’t already in either the House or Senate version of legislation being considered.

This week in the House, Congress will again wade into an issue that members have spent considerable time debating with little to show for their efforts: the war in Iraq.

The House is expected to vote as early as Wednesday on an approximately $50 billion “bridge fund” for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate will follow suit by the end of the week, according to congressional sources.

The bridge fund, designed to tide the military over until Congress approves the 2008 emergency supplemental, will likely provide money for three to four months of operations.  

Democrats will use the bridge fund to try and influence the administration’s Iraq policy. The language in the bill requires an immediate redeployment of troops from Iraq with the goal of transitioning the U.S. military to a limited presence and mission by Dec. 15, 2008.

K Street may be more interested in a vote on Thursday on a bill pushed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) that would crack down on mortgage lending abuses.

The bill would institute basic national underwriting standards for home loans and require states to register and license all mortgage originators.

Consumer advocates support the legislation, while lenders take strong objection to many of its provisions. For example, they oppose language requiring mortgage originators to offer only products “appropriate” to borrowers’ current circumstances, arguing that the standard is too vague and that a consumer’s income and job status can change quickly.

They also dislike a provision allowing states to tighten consumer protections beyond the minimum federal standards, which they claim will lead to a costly patchwork of regulations.

Still, the industry may not formally oppose the bill because lobbyists fear that such a strategy could raise the risk of harsher restrictions down the road as foreclosures continue to mount in the sub-prime mortgage market.

Frank won GOP backing for the legislation last week, when Reps. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee, and Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), a panel member, signed on as co-sponsors.

In the Senate, it’s still all hands on deck for healthcare lobbyists as members of the Finance Committee keep up their haggling over this year’s version of the inevitable Medicare bill.

As usual, the legislation will be anchored by a one- or two-year postponement of scheduled cuts to Medicare fees for physicians. Without some action by Congress, the flawed statutory formula that calculates the fees will automatically enact a 10 percent cut beginning in January. Lobbyists for the American Medical Association and countless other medical societies won’t rest until they get a result.

The multibillion-dollar cost of this fix — estimates vary widely — must be paid for, though. This is where practically every other sector of the healthcare industry comes in. Health insurance companies know they’re the Democrats’ favorite targets for cuts, via reductions in how much the government pays for private health plans that provide benefits under Medicare Advantage.

The kidney dialysis treatment centers are another possible target, especially as a steady flow of bad news continues about the drugs used to treat kidney patients’ anemia symptoms. Also in the mix are oxygen equipment suppliers, medical imaging equipment sellers and providers, power-wheelchair makers, nursing homes and essentially any other vendor that does business with Medicare.

K Street sources persistently say none of these special interests is safe from the budget ax.

Jessica Holzer, Roxana Tiron and Jeffrey Young contributed to this report.