Congress returns to town this week after a week-long recess with the possibility of action on some major domestic issues during the next four weeks including possible completion of the highway reauthorization bill and further action on a national energy policy.

Kicking off the action, the Senate will finally begin work on appropriations this week starting with the Interior spending bill slated for subcommittee action tomorrow and a full committee markup on June 9. Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) will also move the process along on June 9 by unveiling his allocation of the $843 billion in discretionary spending among the 12 subcommittees.

Continuing to move faster than its counterpart, the House has scheduled the agriculture spending bill for floor time this week and will also markup both the Defense, Science-State-Justice-Commerce and Labor-HHS-Education bills.