GOP Prepares For Dem Push On Finance, Cap And Trade

US lawmakers return from a week-long break Monday to fight unfinished battles over a historic finance industry overhaul, a US Supreme Court nomination, and funding for the unpopular Afghan war.

US President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate and House of Representatives also aim to pass measures aimed at battling stubbornly high US unemployment, their main weakness ahead of November midterm elections.

Time is short: Lawmakers have just three full weeks before a month-long August break, after which the political campaign traditionally shifts into high gear with control of the US Congress and key governorships on the line.

And Democrats face opposition from Republicans, who have ramped up warnings that the swelling US deficit and the ballooning national debt it feeds threaten the United States' future.

The US Senate was to pursue its work on a jobs package immediately upon its return, and could also take up the war spending measure and hold the final vote on Wall Street overhaul legislation this week, Democratic aides said.

Analysts expect the new banking rules -- the most sweeping such initiative since the Great Depression of the 1930s -- to get through Congress, but Democrats have struggled to find the 60 votes needed to ensure Senate passage.

The House of Representatives passed the measure in a largely party-line vote before the July 4 break, leaving Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hunt for support necessary to overcome any parliamentary delay tactics.

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