The return of the House and Senate next week marks the start of a pressure-filled, two-week work period in which both political parties are hoping to make progress on a debt-ceiling deal.

The pressure is coming from all directions: the lack of significant job creation in May, a stock market that has deflated over the last six weeks, more warnings of a housing double dip, and the fear in both parties that all of these factors will only get worse without a debt-ceiling agreement.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) says there are several positive signs suggesting Democrats can retake the House next year. 

"More and more, the polling, the pundits are indicating that Tea Party extremism is not sitting well with voters," Miller said in response to a question about whether Democrats could retake the House. "So, yes, I'm very encouraged that we will take back the House."

Miller, the ranking member on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and a close ally of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), made the remarks in an interview published Thursday in a California newspaper, the Contra Costa Times.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Friday outlined a summer legislative plan that includes reducing regulations, approving pending trade deals, passing patent reform and reducing barriers to U.S. energy production.

In a memo to House Republicans, Cantor put reducing regulatory burdens at the top of his list, and listed three bills for likely action in July and early August:

Senate committees will swing back into work on Tuesday and pursue an agenda focused on threats on the home front from both terrorism and acts of God.

As wildfires sweep across the Southwest United States, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will weigh the state of preparedness of the nation's wildfire management programs.

The Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a discussion led by Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that continues to examine how lessons learned from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan can be used to make America's nuclear industry more secure.

Details on next week’s featured Senate committee hearings follow:

The House returns next week to committee work on international financial reform and the ongoing U.S. military involvement in Libya.

On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will hear from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the state of international financial reform. The same committee will hold a follow-up hearing Thursday on the same topic.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has set a Thursday deadline for the administration to comply with the House's demands on Libya.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will deliver his maiden speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, five months after entering the upper chamber.

The Tea Party favorite will be the final senator from the freshman class to deliver his inaugural speech in the Senate.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is offering legislation to give officials the power to block health insurance rate increases. 

The Senate on Tuesday will hold a procedural vote on an amendment that would eliminate about $6 billion in tax credits provided annually to subsidize blenders of ethanol.

The vote comes after the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), presented 16 signatures from other senators to the Senate clerk Thursday and demanded that a vote to limit debate be placed on the schedule.

Coburn has been pushing for a vote on the amendment throughout the year, selling it as an important step toward slashing out-of-control government spending.