Nine crucial spending bills will take up a lot of time, but the president also wants to squeeze in a bill to allow warrantless eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, a free-trade deal with Vietnam and a bill allowing nuclear co-operation with India despite India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The US Magnitsky bill adopted late last year sparked particular fury in Moscow as the law bars Russian officials suspected of human rights violations from entering America and freezes any US assets they may have.