After a weekend of fireworks, parades, and apple pie, Congress returns from the Independence Day recess this week with the Senate scheduled to be in session for five weeks and the House of Representatives in session for four weeks before departing for the August recess.

June proved to be a productive month legislatively, with Congress giving final approval to several trade-related measures, including a bill to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preferences, and the preferential duty treatment program for Haiti; a bill to extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program; and, most notably, a bill granting the president Trade Promotion Authority. Congress also approved the USA Freedom Act, which ended the bulk collection of U.S. citizens’ phone data by the National Security Agency.