The Senate will try again to pass a housing stimulus bill this week, even enough Senate Republicans - more than 40 - blocked a previous attempt to move a housing bill several weeks ago.

The House on Monday will vote on legislation introduced by Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, to direct the president to establish a National Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System.

The bill has been placed on the suspension calendar, meaning that debate on the bill is suspended but two-thirds of the House must vote for the measure for it to pass. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has a similar bill.

But all eyes will look toward next week when Army Gen. David Petreaus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testify before several Congressional committees. Congress also will debate another supplemental spending bill to pay for the Iraq war. Last year, President Bush asked for $197 billion and Congress, after much back and forth, delivered $70 billion.

This debate certainly will lead both sides to rehash old questions and frame new ones - and certainly presidential politics will hang over the debate. Democrats will argue that the Iraqis must take more responsibility and that the Bush administration must show more progress by meeting more benchmarks. Republicans will maintain that the war is the central front in the war against terrorism and that the surge succeeded and that Iraqis are taking the lead.

It's unclear how the recent fighting - and cease fire - will affect the debate because it's not clear whether the Iraqi assault, backed by American air power, was a political and military success, a draw or a disaster.

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