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Five Stories You'll Care About in Politics This Week

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies about the attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, Jan. 23, 2013 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

May 24, 2015, 5:16 AM

 -- It's been a week of Hillary Clinton Benghazi emails and lots of Senate floor time for Sen. Rand Paul, with a little help from his friends on both sides of the aisle.

This coming week, we'll likely see four -- count 'em -- presidential announcements, a continued fight over surveillance, and more on Clinton's emails as secretary of state.

Here's a look at some of the stories the ABC News political team will be tracking in the week ahead:

FINALLY, CHALLENGERS FOR CLINTON

As we know, Bernie Sanders has already said he'll run for president, but he'll kick off his campaign with an announcement speech on Tuesday in his home state of Vermont. Martin O'Malley is expected to make his announcement in Baltimore, the city he governed as mayor, on Saturday. Hillary Clinton has a death grip on the Democratic nomination, but O'Malley and Sanders have proven at least nettlesome on trade and campaign finance, putting her in awkward positions on both, at times. The primary could very well be a story of Clinton being forced to the left, or of how far liberals are willing to go in expressing dissatisfaction with her.

MORE CLINTON-EMAIL MADNESS: BENGHAZI FALL-OUT, TIMING FOR THE REST OF IT

Not one but two Clinton-email story lines will be on display. First, any fallout over her Benghazi emails: Without many campaign events over the weekend, Republicans will get their first high-profile chances to respond on Sunday, and we'll see what talking points emerge. Second, on Tuesday we'll find out when the State Department will start releasing the rest of her emails (55,000 pages, redacted), as a federal judge ordered the State Department to file a schedule on that day. The emails will be released in batches every 60 days. We won't see any more of them on Tuesday, but at least we'll find out when we will.

SURVEILLANCE SET TO EXPIRE, GOP SPLIT

Provisions in the Patriot Act that grant controversial surveillance authorities to the NSA are set to expire on June 1. The Senate blocked a short-term extension before leaving for the Memorial Day holiday, so it is certain this dispute will continue to rage in the coming weeks, with Republicans split over the issue. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was joined by fellow '16ers Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz on the Senate floor in his 10-hour speech opposing the NSA's collection of phone metadata; Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Lindsey Graham have been out on the trail saying that program should continue. There's an actual policy debate stirring the GOP field right now, and it'll continue until Congress settles on an answer.

GETTING CLOSER TO TPP

The Senate voted to approve Trade Promotion Authority for President Obama. That's been a contentious issue with the left, and talk of it probably won't die down for Hillary Clinton, who's been noncommittal on the whole notion of Obama's major Pacific trade deal. TPA will head over to the House, and it's likely President Obama will be step closer to having a freer hand in negotiating what could be a cornerstone trade deal for his presidency.

TWO GOP ANNOUNCEMENTS

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, a happy warrior in the 2012 presidential race, is expected to make his announcement in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Santorum appeals to Christian conservatives and won Iowa last time around, but in 2016, that's a crowded space in which to compete: the likes of Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, and others are all vying for that same vote. George Pataki, a national-security hawk who's not afraid to buck his party on issues like climate change, also is expected to make his announcement in New Hampshire on Thursday.