WASHINGTON — Beginning his final year in office with low approval ratings, a Democratic Congress, and a nation fixated on choosing his successor, President Bush is preparing a State of the Union speech for today that will accentuate unfinished business and lay out modest goals.

In his radio address Saturday, Mr. Bush said he would use his speech to urge congressional action to stimulate the economy and to authorize a warrantless wiretapping program that provides legal immunity for phone companies that cooperated with administration surveillance efforts before laws were changed.

The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Mr. Bush’s speech, would be “focused on the future,” rather than providing a review of the president’s first seven years in office, and would “reflect the president’s mind set that he is going to sprint to the finish.” But the central policy measures Mr. Bush plans to highlight, according to senior aides, are issues that have run into major objections: Extending the eavesdropping legislation; perpetuating the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and renewing the 2002 overhaul of education programs encompassed in the No Child Left Behind law, among others.

Mr. Bush was not presented with a draft of the speech, Ms. Perino said, until barely two weeks before its delivery, while he was traveling earlier this month in the Middle East — suggesting a less-than-intensive approach by the president. But policy advocates across Washington — particularly long-time allies uncertain about the reception they might receive from the next president — have been busy seeking to gain a presidential nod, in a phrase or sentence, for their projects and goals.