Congress' two-week Easter recess ends on Monday and, like all recesses, this one passed too slowly for my editors and too quickly for me.

When the House and Senate return, they head into an eight-week session until Memorial Day. That probably will be the longest stretch that they are in session this election year.

While Congress will be overshadowed by the presidential race, the House and Senate must go about the standard business of government: namely, getting the budget resolution passed and starting work on the dozen or so appropriations bills that keep the government running each year.

The House and Senate will work to reconcile the differences in their respective budget resolutions. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will consider a Global AIDS bill, and the U.S. Fire Administration Reauthorization Act.

The Senate will reconsider a housing foreclosure-relief bill, which Republicans had filibustered earlier this month.

Perhaps the biggest even will occur a week from Monday, on April 8, at 9:30 a.m., when Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee later that day.

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