WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democrats may push a new bill authorizing the use of force in Iraq -- replacing the 2002 bill that allowed the Bush administration to proceed with the war, a top Democrat said Friday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer -- number two in the House behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- said that is one step Democrats might pursue to change conditions in Iraq.

After a series of congressional hearings on the war, "we will then explore appropriate ways to affect the policy and strategy being pursued in Iraq," Hoyer said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

"Possible vehicles" include spending bills for military and diplomatic activities in Iraq "and possibly a revised authorization for the use of military force in Iraq that more accurately reflects the mission of our troops on the ground," he said.

Next week, the Senate is expected to pass a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, and, Hoyer said, the House will likely pass an identical bipartisan resolution.

"Beyond this resolution, though, our goal in the House is to conduct the kind of oversight of the president's policy that has been sorely missing during the nearly four years of this war. Democrats intend to hold this administration accountable," the Maryland Democrat said. "I believe the administration's Iraq policy is the most incompetent implementation of American foreign policy in my lifetime.

"Frankly, it is time for the president to accept that we are no longer involved in a nation-building exercise, we are involved in conflict resolution."