FACTBOX: Details of Speaker Pelosi's agenda for 2009

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has listed the top five initiatives she would like to pursue with the next president, who will be sworn in on January 20, 2009. Here are Pelosi's priorities, given in an interview with Reuters and in the order she would like to see them move through Congress. She described some immediate steps that could be taken, as well as initiatives that could be started but would require work beyond 2009. NATIONAL SECURITY Ending the war in Iraq is the linchpin, Pelosi said. Setting timetables for withdrawing U.S. combat troops would free them up to focus on rooting out militants in Afghanistan and other places, while allowing the Pentagon to recover from the strains of the Iraq war, now in its sixth year. Some of the money now being spent to fight in Iraq and rebuild that... [read full story]