National Security Legislative Wrap-up

Congress returns this week from recess. A House-Senate conference to resolve differences between the two versions of the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Resolution may begin this week.

The President will attend a NATO summit this week in Bucharest, Romania, and then hold a quickly scheduled summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A major topic of conversation is the proposed missile defense site in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are slated to testify before Congress next week, tentatively April 8 and 9. The first mark-up or writing of the second portion of the Fiscal Year 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill is likely to begin later this month in the House Appropriations Committee. That bill is expected to be the vehicle for many legislative fights on ending the Iraq war, including a deadline for troop withdrawal, mandates for training and equipping troops, longer rest time between deployments, blocking long-term commitments to the Iraqi government and increasing education benefits for veterans.