Tuesday's global agenda: Obama, Romney surrogates face off on US role in the world

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) share the presidential candidates' views on U.S. engagement with the world this afternoon at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition's annual conference in Washington. The coalition of more than 400 businesses and nonprofit organizations supports continued U.S. investment in development and diplomacy.

Before Coleman and Kerry take the stage, former political party chairmen Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe look ahead to the conventions and the final stretch of presidential and congressional campaigns. And Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will be honored at a Tribute Dinner, followed by a discussion with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.

Authorize this: The House is looking to approve legislation today that would authorize the State Department and the U.S. Foreign Service for the first time in a decade. The outlook for the spending bill that would actually appropriate funds to the authorized programs is dim, however.

 The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, H.R. 6018, mostly authorizes spending at current levels, but the bill also gave the House Foreign Affairs Committee a chance to make specific policy changes, including authorizing some activities that already exist, without explicit congressional approval.

The House is also scheduled to vote on Senate legislation requiring the Obama administration to tell Congress whether the Pakistan-based Haqqani network qualifies as a terrorist group and, if not, which criteria have not been met. A vote on Sen. Richard Burr's (R-N.C.) bill was postponed last week.

And the House will vote on Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which extends existing loan guarantees through 2015 to help Israel arm itself against Iran and other regional foes.

Hollywood on the Hill: Actress Jada Pinkett Smith testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on human trafficking, along with two other advocates. 

In other hearings, the Senate Homeland Security panel's subcommittee on investigations examines U.S. vulnerabilities to money laundering, drugs and terrorist financing. The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global health tackles the global challenge in fighting Lyme disease. And the Senate Intelligence panel holds one of its regular closed-door sessions.

In other news: 

The Pentagon is building a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar and organizing its biggest-ever minesweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf, as preparations accelerate for a possible flare-up with Iran, The Wall Street Journal reports.

India has formally asked that the United Arab Emirates investigate the fatal shooting of an Indian fisherman by a U.S. Navy ship in waters off Dubai. [Al Jazeera]

Iraq is not liable for the end of two oil-for-food contracts dating from the Saddam Hussein regime, a divided U.S. federal appeals court ruled. [Reuters]

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Kerry predicts GOP will cave to oil industry on Law of the Sea Treaty

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Report: State Department lacks experienced diplomats