The House and Senate have a busy week planned before they recess for the Easter break. They will return March 31.

While the presidential contest is getting all the attention, Democrats captured former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat. What this means for 2008 is unclear, but it certainly gave Democrats ammunition that the political climate here.remains anti-Republican.

The Senate will begin debating the 2009 budget this week and the House will have a full day debate on the FISA/wiretapping bill.

The House and Senate must pass a budget resolution by March 15 and they must agree to one by April 15 (there's no penalty if they do not; the president does not sign them into law). After that, the appropriators will get to work filling in specific spending amounts.

Like last year, the issue is the Alternative Minimum Tax. Both the House and Senate would shield middle-income taxpayers from the AMT, but the House requires a tax increase to pay for the lost revenue; the Senate would not. This is the same fight that occurred last year; the House was forced to give into the Senate and finance the loss of revenue with more deficit spending.

House Democratic leaders also would like to pass legislation this week creating an independent board to review ethics complaints against lawmakers.

The Mississippi presidential primary is on Tuesday.

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