Monday, May 15, 2006

President Bush joins the immigration debate when he lays out his vision for the nation's immigration laws tonight at 8 on national television. The Senate, after weeks of haggling, finally gets back to work on a bill that could grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.

The Senate got back on track last week after Republican and Democratic leaders worked out a few parliamentary disputes, but big hurdles remain. Senators will be able to add a "considerable" number of amendments to the bill when the debate starts today. And there is a desert-size gulf between the approach of the Senate and that of the House, which has passed an enforcement-only bill that could lead to illegal immigrants being charged with felonies and deported.

ASSURANCE POLICY: Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who very publicly lost his policy management duties at the White House last month, apparently hopes to remind people he still has some say in administration policy. He addresses the conservative American Enterprise Institute this morning in what is billed as "a major policy address." No early word on what his major policy du jour would be.

VIEW FROM DOWN UNDER: Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has kept troops in Iraq even as other countries have pulled out, will pay Bush a visit tomorrow, when they will talk about China and the looming Iran crisis. Then, moving to the domestic front Wednesday, Bush will sign into law a bill that extends tax breaks on capital gains and dividends through 2010 and includes fewer middle-class taxpayers in the alternative minimum tax.

LISTEN IN ON THIS: The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled Thursday to hold open and closed hearings on the nomination of Gen. Michael V. Hayden as CIA director. Senators are expected to use the hearings to grill Hayden on his time at the National Security Agency, where he oversaw the controversial secret wiretap program and the newly disclosed database of domestic phone records.

WEATHER THE STORM? New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin didn't escape Hurricane Katrina without prompting criticism for his handling of the crisis, and his comments about New Orleans being a "chocolate city" afterward invited even more controversy. On Saturday, NoLa residents will decide whether Nagin keeps his job when they vote in a runoff that pits the mayor against Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, a fellow Democrat.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb