Members of the House Armed Services Committee hunker down with lobbyists and interest groups this coming week as they start to put together their annual Defense bill.

Lawmakers have until Tuesday, March 3, to prepare general policy requests they hope to get integrated into the underlying bill before it's marked up and amended, sources tell Al-Monitor. The bill is expected to include language on aid to the Syrian rebels and other Middle East issues, including the war against Islamic State. It could also include an attempt to link Bahrain's human-rights record to the continued presence of the US Fifth Fleet after it came up short last year.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry makes the rounds on Capitol Hill as he seeks to sell President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2016 budget request. He'll be testifying before Senate appropriators and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 24, before returning Feb. 25 to brief the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the morning and House appropriators in the afternoon.

Nuclear talks with Iran come under scrutiny in the committees' human rights and Middle East panels on Thursday as they tackle "the shame of Iranian human rights." The topic of Iran is also expected to come up during a hearing Feb. 26 by the committee's Western Hemisphere panel on "The President’s New Cuba Policy and U.S. National Security."