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Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, may announce the formation of an exploratory committee to run for president.

The nation’s political reporters are making the trek from Washington to Atlanta on Thursday in the belief — bolstered by some fresh evidence — that the 2012 presidential campaign is about to get fully engaged.

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is set to confirm his intention to explore a presidential campaign — the first step toward becoming an official candidate for the Republican nomination.

At the same time, Matt Strawn, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, will be in Washington Thursday to discuss the carefully constructed Republican primary and caucus calendar, which is once again threatened by states eager to leapfrog into the early months of the contest.

And the Fox News network has finally begun to confront the obvious dilemma posed by the presence of likely presidential candidates on its payroll. On Wednesday, the network suspended Mr. Gingrich and Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, as contributors until they decide whether to run for president.

Together, the developments suggest that the race to challenge President Obama is about to escape the behind-the-scenes jockeying phase and enter full-blown campaign season.

Just what Mr. Gingrich plans to say today is in some doubt. Top aides had signaled this week that he would officially form an exploratory committee. But later, aides insisted that his trip to Georgia was not designed as a campaign event, though he certainly might answer a question about his plans.

The Associated Press reported Thursday morning that Mr. Gingrich would begin raising money to gauge his support in advance of formally setting up a committee.

Either way, an official acknowledgment by Mr. Gingrich that he is running for president could jump-start a race that has been simmering below the surface for months. Close to half a dozen candidates have said they are considering running for president, but none have so far taken official steps.

They may not be able to wait much longer. With Mr. Gingrich on the move, other serious contenders may feel pressure to make their intentions known. And with the first presidential debate scheduled for May 2, time is running out.

So, apparently, is the patience of Fox News, which has contracts or agreements with Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska. All have expressed interest in running for president, a decision that would require them to sever ties with the network.

On the network Wednesday, Bret Baier, the political anchor, said the suspension of Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum was effective for 60 days. “Then on May 1, their contracts will be terminated unless they notify Fox that they are not running for president,” he said.

The network said similar action would be taken against Ms. Palin and Mr. Huckabee as soon as they show “some serious intention to form an exploratory committee.”

The candidates are not the only ones ramping up, however. State officials across the country are once again eagerly scheming to make sure the presidential contests come early enough in the political season to make a read difference.

For decades, Iowa and New Hampshire have insisted on being the two opening states of the presidential campaign. More recently, South Carolina and Nevada have held onto early positions in the political calendar. The Iowa caucus is scheduled for Feb. 6, with the New Hampshire primary eight days later. Except for South Carolina and Nevada, all of the other states are supposed to wait until March to hold their contests.

But in Minnesota, the Republican Party is insisting on a Feb. 7 date for its caucus, just a day after Iowa’s. Florida Republicans have scheduled their primary for Jan. 31— a poke in the eye to the four states that traditionally hold the early contests.

In an interview Wednesday as he arrived in Washington, Mr. Strawn said Iowa would reject those efforts.

“In my conversations with colleagues in New Hampshire and South Carolina, the early states will do what we need to do to maintain our traditional role as the leadoff states,” Mr. Strawn said. “We certainly reserve the right to do what’s necessary.”

If that sounds like a threat, it is. Mr. Strawn and his counterparts in New Hampshire have made it clear that they will move the dates of their contests up to make sure that they are first. The hopscotching in 2008 ended only when the Iowa caucus was scheduled for Jan. 3.

“We are monitoring the situation,” Mr. Strawn said. “There’s time for states to get in compliance with the R.N.C. rules.”

Those rules are fairly strict this year: states that improperly schedule their contests before March 1 risk losing the ability to seat their delegates at the national convention in the summer of 2012 — the ultimate loss of influence in picking the party’s nominee.

But beyond that, the Republican National Committee has threatened that states could find themselves in less desirable hotels during the convention and without guest and V.I.P. passes to hand out. As Mr. Strawn put it: “That is a problem for state party leaders trying to figure out how to keep people happy.”

In addition to meeting with reporters on Thursday, Mr. Strawn is in Washington to meet with national party leaders in the hopes that they can avert a messy dispute playing out in the press like it did four years ago.

“I am hopeful,” he said, “that states still have the time to be in compliance with those rules.”

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Budgets in the House of Representatives will soon undergo some trimming, if Representative John A. Boehner, the incoming speaker, has his way. But according to a new report, congressional staffing levels have already fallen off over the last three decades and many House staffers could be paid significantly more for similar work in the private sector.

The study from the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan outfit that aims to make government more transparent, also found that many employees in personal House offices have seen little change in their salaries over the last 20 years and that congressional offices have shifted more of their staff members away from Washington and into their home districts.

The analysis comes not long after Mr. Boehner said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he would look to cut an array of House budgets by 5 percent in order to help reduce federal spending. “You’ve got to start somewhere,” the Ohio Republican said. “And we’re going to start there.”

The Sunlight Foundation’s review did offer several caveats – for instance, in its comparison of salaries in the House and the private sector, the foundation said it was unable to consider committee salaries and that it only had approximate private sector parallels for some positions in Congress.

But it also asserted that, on average, a House member’s chief of staff could make almost 40 percent more in a comparable private position. In other top jobs – such as legislative director, communications director or senior legislative assistant – a staffer could add an additional 50 percent to 80 percent to their salaries in the private sector.

The study also found that staffing levels in House personal offices, committees and leadership offices had dropped to 87 percent of their 1979 figures, with even greater reductions at the Government Accountability Office and other support agencies.

Among the report’s other findings: Except in some higher-ranking positions, salary averages in House personal offices had basically stayed the same over the last two decades, adjusting for inflation. And the number of employees in House personal offices based in Washington had fallen from about three-quarters in 1976 to roughly half in 2005 – which, according to the foundation, suggests that fewer staffers are dealing with policy issues.

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The tax cut deal between the White House and Congressional Republicans could hinge on a renewable energy grant program that some Democrats are fighting to include in the package.

The White House and Republican leaders have suggested that the deal is essentially final and that they have little willingness to renegotiate the terms.

But many Congressional Democrats are furious both about the prospect of continuing the Bush-era tax cuts, even on the highest incomes, and about the way they were cut out of the negotiations. House Democrats on Thursday voted to block the bill from getting a vote unless changes were made.

One change that Democrats are seeking is the extension of a Treasury grant program for renewable energy projects, which was first adopted in the 2009 economic stimulus bill. Supporters say the program has generated big growth in American clean energy industries. The program is set to expire on Dec. 31.

Three Democrats, Representatives Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Mike Thompson of Califorina and Rush Holt of New Jersey, have scheduled a news conference on Thursday afternoon to push for the energy grant program.

They will also send a letter to House leaders, signed by 79 lawmakers who support this program.

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