The House and Senate have set a blistering pace so far in 2015, collectively taking only a few weeks off since starting a new congressional session. But this is the final week before both chambers leave for a two-week recess March 30-April 10. As of press time, both chambers intended to take up their respective 2016 budget resolutions. Here are three things to watch as lawmakers scurry to the exits.

Issue: Are the Votes There?

What's happening: House GOP leaders will need 217 GOP votes to pass a resolution and set the stage for a conference committee process with the Senate. And that process is necessary to produce a common spending blueprint. The House GOP plan would cut $5.5 trillion in total federal spending; the Senate Republican proposal cuts $5.1 trillion. Both measures stick to existing spending caps, meaning they would give the Pentagon $499 billion after sequestration. The House tried to blunt sequester's punch by swelling the war fund to $90 billion. At press time, the Senate's measure proposed taking the Obama administration's $50.9 billion war-funding request to $58 billion. It also proposes a reserve fund to be tapped for bigger annual defense budgets if a bipartisan sequester-busting pact is forged.

What to watch: There are reasons to believe the lower chamber's bill might never actually reach the floor. Defense hawks — 70 in all — are threatening to withhold their support unless the annual Pentagon budget gets more dollars under the resolution. But House Budget Committee leaders continue pushing the larger overseas contingency operations idea. That's why Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute believes "the House budget resolution will not have enough votes to pass as written." If that happens, she notes, "there will be no conference with the Senate as a result."

Issue: DoD's Message Problem

What's happening: Hawkish lawmakers seem increasingly frustrated that their warnings, and those of senior Pentagon officials, to their colleagues about the ills of military funding cuts simply are not getting through. To many of their GOP colleagues, keeping deficit reduction steps on the books is more important. One defense observer noted last week that part of the problem is the Pentagon has been unable to clearly describe to members who don't sit on the defense panels just what "readiness" means — and how it has allegedly been weakened.

What to watch: Defense officials will get another shot on March 25 when the vice chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Marine Corps' No. 2, appear before the Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support subcommittee. The hearing's title is "the current state of readiness of US forces." Straight forward, sure, but also a new chance for the Pentagon to make its case. And make no mistake, decreased readiness more than any other item is the backbone of the Defense Department's anti-sequestration narrative.

Issue: HASC's Dizzying Week

What's happening: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters last week that his subcommittees will begin marking up their portions of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) the week of April 20. His plan is for the full committee to take up the bill on April 29, and likely finishing it in the wee hours of April 30. To do that, the full committee and its subpanels still must hear from a slew of military officials before they put pen to paper on the draft legislation.

What to watch: At press time, HASC's weekly agenda featured six budget-themed hearings, including one on the all-important, narrative-driving readiness issue. That hearing is one of three morning sessions slated for March 26, the day the House intends to adjourn until after the Easter recess. The week also will include hearings on ground forces and rotorcraft modernization; aviation modernization programs; countering weapons of mass destruction; military space programs; nuclear defense initiatives; and "laying the groundwork to main­tain technological superiority."

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