The US Congress was back in session Monday after a week's recess with a packed program in the coming weeks before the month-long summer vacation starts on August 3.

The Obama administration is counting on the House of Representatives to push through sweeping legislation on energy and the environment, as well as lay out the foundations for a comprehensive reform of the healthcare system, something that has bedeviled successive administrations for decades.

Obama has also appealed to the Senate for a swift confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee judge Sonia Sotomayor, to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

Sotomayor, 54, is set to head to Capitol Hill this week to meet with lawmakers, launching a confirmation process that could see her become the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, and only the third ever woman top justice.

Barring shock revelations, Sotomayor, who was raised in New York public housing by a single mother, is likely to win easy Senate confirmation, experts have said.

Obama's Republican critics have so far shown only a meager appetite for a fight. And Republicans worry that overly hostile questioning of Sotomayor could further alienate the party from Hispanic voters, who flocked to Obama in the 2008 White House race.

Major legislation is also pending in Congress.

The draft climate change bill -- a nearly 1,000-page document -- was approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee last month. Other congressional panels must now take up the measure before submitting it to a full House vote and sending it to the Senate.

"The American Clean Energy and Security Act" aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, while creating "green" jobs.

It also includes provisions for a "cap-and-trade" system limiting overall carbon dioxide emissions from large industrial sources and then allocating and selling pollution permits.

The measures still fall short of a pledge by European Union members to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 20 percent from their 1990 levels by 2020 and boost renewable energy sources by 20 percent.

Obama's Democratic allies, who control the Senate and House of Representatives, have said they want to have a bill ready to lend momentum to key December UN-led global climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Congressional Democrats are also embarking on the task of reforming the ailing US healthcare system, a mainstay of Obama's campaign promises.

Obama has pressed Congress to pass a healthcare reform bill before the end of the year.

"Our businesses will not be able to compete; our families will not be able to save or spend; our budgets will remain unsustainable unless we get health care costs under control," Obama said.

A coalition of US progressive groups, Health Care for America Now, unveiled Monday a 82-million-dollar campaign to boost Obama's plans to overhaul the healthcare system.

Most of the funds from the newly unveiled campaign will go toward grassroots organizing, coalition building and advertising, as well as a "very modest amount" of lobbying, said national campaign manager Richard Kirsch.

But many Republicans have faulted Obama's plan, which would provide a new range of health insurance options, make insurance firms cover pre-existing conditions and include tax credits to help small businesses provide healthcare to workers.

The plan is part of a bid to provide universal coverage in the United States, where some 46 million Americans still lack health insurance.

Obama has also unveiled what he billed as a "historic" tie-up with healthcare providers to slash rises in medical costs by up to two trillion dollars over 10 years.

Early work on the draft bill will be undertaken by the Senate Health Committee, which is chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democratic stalwart who has spent much of his career pushing for an overhaul of the healthcare system.

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