Below is the Federal Policy team’s weekly preview, published each Monday that Congress is in session.

HEADLINES

• Foreign policy is likely to lead headlines this week, as President Trump plans to decide whether the U.S. will remain in President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, and he may also announce specifics on a plan to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un; these developments could postpone a planned speech on prescription drug prices that had already been pushed to this week from late April.
• Congress returns from a weeklong recess, continuing a focus on opioids and judicial nominees.
• Congressional primaries will take place on Tuesday in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.

HOUSE

• The House plans to vote Monday through Thursday. The legislative agenda includes a resolution to repeal an Obama administration guidance on indirect auto lending; several noncontroversial bills from the Small Business Committee; and long-stalled legislation to help establish a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
• The Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday will hold the first of two markups this month considering dozens of bills addressing opioid abuse; the committee’s Oversight Subcommittee on Tuesday will hold a hearing with top executives from drug distributors regarding drug diversion and the companies’ roles in the crisis. Also on Tuesday the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on opioids, and the Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections will examine opioids’ impact on federal employees.
• The Appropriations Committee on Tuesday will mark up its first two funding bills for fiscal 2019, on military construction and VA, and the legislative branch; the Armed Services Committee on Wednesday will begin consideration of the annual Defense Authorization legislation.
• A full listing of House committee activity can be found here.

SENATE

• The Senate plans to be in session throughout the week, and will proceed with floor consideration of Trump’s judicial nominees.
• The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday will consider the nomination of Gina Haspel to be CIA director.
• Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) plan to file a discharge petition aiming to force a vote on legislation reinstating Obama-era net neutrality rules.
• The current listing of Senate committee activity can be found here.

WHITE HOUSE

• Trump has said that he will decide by this Saturday whether to withdraw the U.S. from President Obama’s 2015 multilateral agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program; he may also announce the time and location of a meeting with Kim Jong Un of North Korea.
• Trump planned this week to give a Rose Garden speech regarding prescription drug prices and the administration’s plan to address them; however, the speech has already been delayed from late April and may be pushed again due to foreign policy developments.
• Trade envoy Robert Lighthizer plans to meet with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts to continue working toward a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.