US lawmakers return to work Monday to wage historic fights over a nuclear treaty with Russia, a US Supreme Court vacancy, and new rules for Wall Street — all with November mid-term elections looming.

The US Congress, back after a two-week recess, also faces calls from President Barack Obama to act swiftly on legislation to battle climate change, enact sweeping education reforms, and tackle high unemployment.

"It's pretty rare to have an agenda of this size, and especially as you move into the final months before the November elections," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

President Barack Obama, still flush from his historic health care victory but keenly aware of forecasts his Democratic allies will suffer heavy losses in the fall contest, has spurred lawmakers to act quickly on key priorities.

But his Republican foes, largely in lockstep behind a strategy of delay or outright opposition since he took office in January 2009, have shown little inclination to help him score political victories ahead of the vote.

"They very successfully slowed down, gummed up the works, energized their base," said Ornstein. "So politically they have incentive to do the same thing. But I don't think it succeeds."

Obama has challenged the Senate to approve, by June, legislation to toughen financial industry regulations in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 2008 global economic meltdown that has bedeviled the US economy with high unemployment.

Republicans, backed by an all-out push from the industry, have sought to water down key provisions in the Senate bill, which is not as tough as a House version passed late last year.

But because of voter anger at big banks and rich investment houses, many of which survived only thanks to titanic taxpayer bailouts, "that's the toughest one for Republicans to oppose," said presidential politics expert Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution think tank.

The president is expected to face a bitter confirmation fight from Senate Republicans over his as-yet unannounced choice to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in a lifetime appointment to the US Supreme Court.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed "a sustained and vigorous" debate and did not rule out parliamentary tactics to delay confirmation, which requires a mere majority vote.

And Obama has said his choice will be someone ready to take on "powerful interests" that threaten "to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens" — a direct challenge to conservatives who say they oppose judicial activism.

"Any way you look at it, we're going to have time, energy, resources of the senate soaked up for weeks by this process," said Ornstein.

Obama has also called for ratification this year of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, a process that requires 67 votes in the Senate, where his Democrats and their two independent allies control just 59.

Republicans have expressed concerns but stopped short of vowing to oppose the pact, but say Obama must commit to modernizing the US nuclear arsenal and ensure that US missile defense plans are not affected.

"The president should get that, but nothing is easy in Washington anymore, and nothing is easy when you need 67 votes in the Senate," said Hess.

The US Senate will also be a battleground for legislation to battle climate change, with a compromise Democratic-Republican plan set to see the light of day the week of Earth Day, April 22.

Republicans, backed by industry, have opposed tough new rules they say could be "job-killers" and rejected the "cap-and-trade" carbon emissions market at the core of the bill the House passed last year.

Democrats have said they will keep pushing for programs aimed at creating jobs and pulling down the US unemployment rate — widely seen as their biggest liability in the November elections that will decide control of Congress.

Republicans have repudiated their free-spending ways under then-president George W. Bush and now paint the ballooning deficit as a threat to a US economic resurgence.

Other conflicts have been brewing over legislation to toughen sanctions on Iran or extend unemployment benefits, and lawmakers are expected to have their usual battles over annual spending bills.

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