In addition to the frontal assault on President Bush's escalation of the Iraq war, the new 110th, Democratic-majority Congress is off to a fast start.

The House has already passed important legislation, much of it with Republican as well as Democratic support. It is important to remember, however, that at least three more hurdles have to be cleared before that legislation becomes law.

The first is the Senate -- where the Democratic majority is smaller, delay by the opposition is easier and legislation just moves more slowly. The second barrier is Mr. Bush himself, who would have to sign the bills in question. He may impose a veto, which stops or delays legislation, depending on its level of support in Congress.

Or, as he has done more than 800 times, President Bush may sign the legislation while issuing a "signing statement." These have no constitutional base but declare which parts of the newly passed law his administration will enforce and which parts it will ignore or modify in practice.

The House has cut through an ambitious agenda so far. It took as its first priority a cleanup of its own ethics situation. It adopted, almost unanimously, a package of internal rule changes designed to stamp out, or at least constrain, the corrupt financial relationship that has existed for years between lobbyists and members. The lobbyists put up cash for congressional campaigns and make members' lives more comfortable; in return, the members allow the lobbyists to influence legislation to the advantage of those who put up the money, a sort of revolving cycle of legalized bribery.

The second measure taken up by the House was requiring members to put their names on any "earmarks" they tack on to legislation. Earmarks are pieces of bills of particular, usually parochial, interest to a member. Historically they have run the gamut from construction of a bridge in a member's district to a special favor in a bill for a company that has donated generously to a member's campaign.

Other new House-passed measures include spending controls, designed to offset any further tax cuts with reductions in spending. The intention is to reduce the growth of government borrowing and the national debt, which has spiraled up from $5.7 trillion to $8.6 trillion during the years of George W. Bush and the Republican Congress.

Another bill would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. The narrow Democratic majority in the Senate, however, may require that benefits for small businesses be added to the measure to obtain passage there.

A proposal to implement the remaining recommendations of the 9/11 commission, including the screening of ship and aircraft cargos and antiterrorism grants based on risk rather than politics, was also passed by the House. On Thursday, it voted to expand embryonic stem cell research, another measure that may run into trouble at the White House.

Yesterday the House passed legislation requiring the U.S. government to negotiate with drug producers lower prices on medications for Medicare seniors. Mr. Bush says he will veto the bill, arguing that it would constrain market forces. A more likely basis of his opposition may be the large contributions made to Republican candidates by the drug companies.

All in all, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats' ambitious "Hundred Hours for a New Direction" project to pass such long-sought legislation has produced a good start. Whether the Senate and the White House will now hamstring their efforts will be known soon.

So far, particularly in the Iraq affair, Mr. Bush has shown a strong tendency to ignore the results of the Nov. 7 elections. Votes in the House this week, however, indicated that some Republican members are better at reading voters' desires than he has been.