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Good Tuesday morning from Washington, where immigration remains the No. 1 topic of discussion while President Obama also keeps an eye on Iran talks and the situation in Ferguson, Mo. Senator Mary L. Landrieu bets her career on the Keystone XL pipeline, and the city continues to feel the repercussions of David H. Petraeus’s extramarital affair. In the Senate, an overhaul of domestic spying operations is on the line.

While the issue has been overshadowed by the immigration debate, an overhaul of domestic spying operations is set for a test this evening in a Senate vote spurred by disclosures about National Security Agency operations by Edward J. Snowden.

Senators will decide whether to open debate on the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a bipartisan proposal backed by both progressives and conservatives in an attempt to end the intelligence agency’s once-secret program, which systematically collects data in bulk about Americans’ phone calls.

The bill’s supporters, led by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, say they are close to assembling the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor. Supporters have highlighted support for the bill from Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech companies.

The bill would allow the phone data to remain in the custody with the phone companies. It would also give phone and Internet companies more freedom to disclose orders they have received from the government.

The measure faces serious opposition. Some believe it could harm national security, and others argue it does not go far enough in protecting individuals and consumers. The White House warned yesterday that if the bill is blocked, major surveillance programs due to expire next summer may be in jeopardy.

— Carl Hulse

President Obama had been back less than a day from a weeklong trip to Asia but he wasted no time yesterday in sounding out Democratic senators on immigration.

The discussions were broad, congressional officials said, and Mr. Obama did not provide a timetable for executive actions that could protect as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

But the conversations were a clear signal that the president was preparing to move soon, and came as top Senate Democrats sent a letter urging the president to do so. Immigration activists speculated that an announcement could come before week’s end.

But that’s not the only item on his agenda. Today, Mr. Obama faces a Senate vote on a measure that would force him to approve, or veto, the Keystone XL pipeline.

In St. Louis, officials are bracing for possible unrest when the grand jury in the Michael Brown case makes its decision public. That could draw Mr. Obama, and the Justice Department, back into that volatile situation.

And overseas, the president’s team is probably in the final week of negotiations with Iran over the fate of its nuclear program.

For a so-called lame duck, it promises to be a busy week.

— Michael D. Shear

Last week, Senator Mary L. Landrieu got her colleagues to agree to hold a vote that would expedite approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Then yesterday she found protesters laying down an inflatable pipeline on the lawn of her home a few blocks from the Capitol. But the question remains: Will the vote help her hold her seat in a runoff next month in petroleum-producing Louisiana?

Ms. Landrieu, a Democrat, received significant publicity in demanding a pipeline vote as soon as Congress returned. It’s scheduled for today, and win or lose, she can argue that she was able to force the Senate to be decisive — even if the vote was allowed mainly to try to rescue her.

But even if Ms. Landrieu were to weld the pipeline together herself, it might not be enough.

She is being significantly outspent by Republicans and is at a disadvantage in a head-to-head race against Representative Bill Cassidy, her Republican opponent. Fellow Democrats increasingly see her position as precarious.

— Carl Hulse

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who is expected to be re-elected today as the House Democratic leader, moved yesterday to put her stamp on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by installing Representative Ben Ray Luján as its chairman.

Mr. Luján, from a prominent New Mexico political family, puts a younger lawmaker — he’s 42 — with appeal to Hispanic groups at the head of the committee. (He replaces Representative Steve Israel, who is 56 and from reliably blue New York.)

As House minority leader, Ms. Pelosi gets to pick the congressional campaign chairman. But she is having to fight to get another of her allies installed as the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ms. Pelosi wants a close friend, Representative Anna G. Eshoo of California, rather than Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, who has the advantage of seniority.

It’s a test of whether Ms. Pelosi still has clout with her colleagues after the electoral pounding her party took two weeks ago.

— Carl Hulse

President Obama will receive a briefing on the Ebola response at the White House and participate in an ambassadorial credentialing ceremony.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden meets with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka of the Czech Republic before leaving for a trip to Morocco.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, holds a news conference on the Affordable Care Act in Houston.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about Ebola at 1 p.m.

Freshman House members gather for their class photo at 8:15 a.m.

The list is an all-star lineup of the Obama administration’s national security team.

There are cabinet members, current and former; intelligence chiefs; a constellation of generals; and former F.B.I. and C.I.A. directors. They are all potential witnesses in a lawsuit filed by the Florida socialite Jill Kelley. Her lawyers have told the Justice Department they want to depose each person on the list or subpoena documents from them.

Ms. Kelley and her husband are suing the federal government for disclosing her identity in connection with the scandal that led David H. Petraeus to resign as the C.I.A.’s director in November 2012.

Alan Raul, a lawyer for Ms. Kelley, and a spokesman for the Justice Department refused to comment. The names have not been made public, but a person affiliated with the litigation provided them, and the biggest are:

Gen. John R. Allen.

James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

Jeh C. Johnson, secretary of homeland security.

Robert S. Mueller III, former director of the F.B.I.

Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta.

General Petraeus, former C.I.A. director

If the suit goes to trial, and they are all called to testify, the witness list would rival the star power at the Scooter Libby trial in 2007.

— Michael S. Schmidt

The National Journal lists the reasons why an executive order to defer deportations of some illegal immigrants may hurt both parties.

At National Review Online, Andrew C. McCarthy lays out the case for President Obama’s impeachment.

Uber’s chief executive gave a big thumbs-up to the Affordable Care Act over the weekend, and Republicans aren’t happy, according to New York magazine.

What will the “Duck Dynasty” family say? House Republicans have passed a $120 million increase in an annual levy on duck hunters, Politico reports.

The ad wars continue in the Louisiana runoff, with Senator Landrieu saying the latest commercial from her Republican opponentis sexist, according to The Times-Picayune.

Pope Francis has been invited to address Congress, The National Catholic Reporter says. He would be the first pope to do so.