Congress will return to work next week for what likely will be only several days of voting, centered on a catchall spending bill to fund through the rest of the current fiscal year those agencies whose regular appropriations haven’t been enacted. The catchall measure includes the Transportation-Treasury spending bill, which among other things specifies a January 2004 general schedule raise averaging 4.1 percent. However, numerous policy disputes remain, and it is possible that the catchall bill will not be approved. In that event, Congress would return in late January to try again; an earlier-passed temporary measure will fund those agencies through January. Although the Bush administration continues to favor a 2 percent January raise-split as 1.5 percent across the board and 0.5 percent as locality pay-it has not threatened to veto the bill over the 4.1 percent amount.