As Congress returns Monday, after a recess of almost one month, the House of Representatives faces a pile up of pressing legislation, but the approval of the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010 remains a priority to help the country cope with the devastation wrought by successive calamities.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said Saturday the House will hasten the third- reading approval of the proposed 2010 General Appropriations Act (GAA), reiterating his assurance that there would be no reenacted budget next year.

“We cannot afford a reenacted budget. We need to be guided by a national recovery budget that is focused, among others, on education, health and human resource mobilization, information technology, infrastructure and investments development, industries and job promotion, and environment protection,” Nograles said in a statement.

The House approved the 2010 budget proposal on second reading before it went on a Halloween break last Oct.16.

The Speaker was hoping next year’s GAA, which was drafted beforeo the onslaught of tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng,” could somehow help the nation recover from the unprecedented and unimaginable damage caused by the two powerful cyclones.

He said the government, with the help of its people and the international community, should mobilize all available resources in the fight against poverty and protection of the environment.

“Nature’s wrath exempts no one. We all have a stake in the future of our children,” said Nograles, who is in the United States to attend the recent World e-Parliament Forum in Washington together with six other House members. He was expected to proceed to Las Vegas to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight on Sunday, Nov.15.

Quirino Rep. Junie Cua, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said that under the 2010 budget, social services will get the highest share of P479.9 billion or almost a third of the entire national budget for next year.

Of the total social services money, P235 billion will go to education and manpower, including the Department of Education’s share of P172.8 billion and the P101 billion for social security and welfare, Cua said, apparently in response to claims of government critics that President Arroyo has done nothing to alleviate poverty during her nine-year rule.

House Majority Leader Rep. Arthur Defensor of Iloilo, meanwhile, expressed hope that House members will still find time to attend the session despite being busy in their districts preparing for the 2010 polls.

Defensor said that aside from the third- reading approval of the 2010 national budget, the House leadership is determined to pass on final reading the proposed Magna Carta of the Poor embodied in House Bill (HB) 6915 and the proposed Exchange of Information on Tax Matters Act of 2009.