Bush to outline fall agenda at American Legion speech

By John King
CNN Washington Bureau

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush will use a speech to the American Legion convention in San Antonio Wednesday as a "tablesetter" for the fall legislative session, listing education and defense as his key budget priorities, administration officials said.

The president also will again call for Congress to pass his faith-based initiative, and a version of the so-called Patients' Bill of Rights that is acceptable to the White House, the aides said Tuesday.

Given the audience, the president will take time to outline military and international policy concerns but "mostly views this as an opportunity to talk about and promote the fall agenda," said White House deputy press secretary Scott McClellan.

Aides say they expect no new initiatives, but that the president wants to outline his fall agenda before Congress returns to work next week.

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Bush himself will return to Washington Thursday, and delve quickly into a budget battle being shaped by new evidence the federal surplus is shrinking. Some have suggested the government might have to tap into Social Security funds to pay its bills this year, but administration officials have said that won't happen.

In his Wednesday speech, Bush will reiterate his goal of reaching agreement with Congress on spending levels for education and defense at the beginning of the fall appropriations process.

Given the political profile of those two issues, it is common practice for those budgets to be held up until near the end of the process, making them the subject of last-minute spending pressures and deal-making.