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President Obama cleared one of the most important hurdles Tuesday in his effort to win support in Congress for taking action against Syria: Both of the top Republican House leaders — Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia — said they would support such a resolution.

But just what the resolution will say, in terms of how much leeway Congress is willing to give the president, remains unclear. There's no guarantee of success regardless. Any version's chances for passage are highly uncertain at this point. No votes are expected until next week, when the House and Senate return from their summer recess.

What is certain, however, is that the president won't get the exact authorization language he initially proposed.

Senate To Act First

Most presidents in recent years have acted first, then asked Congress for retroactive approval. By calling on Congress to okay action in Syria in advance, Obama has opened up a scenario in which the two chambers will "work their will" — meaning any resolution will be subject to amendment and, potentially, a filibuster in the Senate.

It appears that the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, will act first. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he expects draft language will be ready today or possibly Wednesday, NPR's Ailsa Chang reports.

Corker said it would be good for senators to have a chance to examine the language before returning to the Capitol next week.

House aides said they also expect the Senate to vote first, with House action not coming until later next week.

"When they come back, they're going to want to have several days to mull it," says James Phillips, a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

Lines Of Opposition

It could be a tough sell. Far more members are publicly undecided than openly supportive of military action at this point.

A number of Democrats have issued statements saying that they are skeptical about the use of force and fear another foreign entanglement following Iraq and Afghanistan. Many Republicans have also been critical, arguing that Obama has not outlined a clear strategy.

For all these reasons, the final resolution is likely to be fairly limited in its scope.

"Some are looking for language that is much more targeted, so as not to authorize something that could lead to a broader war," says former Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who is now at the Center for American Progress and favors intervention.

On The Agenda

In the meantime, the relevant committees are holding rounds of hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Martin Dempsey, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are all appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The committee will hold a closed hearing regarding Syria on Wednesday, as will the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will meet privately with Hagel and Dempsey.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kerry and Hagel will both testify publicly before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Obama, who has held multiple meetings with members of Congress over the past few days, will be flying to Sweden Tuesday night before attending the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.

If you're eating fish on a regular basis, chances are some of it is coming from Thailand. The Asian country is the world's No. 3 exporter of seafood (after China and Norway) – and the U.S. is its top destination.

The Thai fishing industry has grown dramatically, and it is now coming under increased scrutiny. A new report details "deceptive and coercive labor practices, and even forced labor and human trafficking within" the Thai fishing sector.

The allegations are not new. An NPR story from June 2012 cited the example of one Cambodian who spent three years confined to a Thai fishing boat. A Global Post series from last year chronicled what it called "seafood slavery." And in May, the Environmental Justice Foundation said Thailand is doing little to prevent the abuses.

Thailand's fishing industry relies heavily on migrant workers from Cambodia and Burma – many of them undocumented. The new report, jointly released Monday by the International Labor Organization and the Asian Research Center for Migration at Chulalongkorn University, is the largest-ever conducted on the subject, surveying about 600 people who work on Thai boats in national and international waters.

Asia

Confined To A Thai Fishing Boat, For Three Years

When the Cold War ended two decades ago there was a widespread belief that the greatest threat to U.S. troops would be boredom. It seemed they faced a future with little to do besides polishing their boots and staging the occasional military exercise.

Yet U.S. presidents are calling on the military more often than ever, with U.S. forces carrying out more than a dozen separate operations since the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991.

President Obama now says he's ready to take action against Syria, but he faces a Congress and a public skeptical about another military adventure in the Middle East, even if it's being billed as a limited operation.

"I know well that we are weary of war," Obama said on Saturday, stressing that any action would not include sending in U.S. ground troops.

Given this backdrop, why is the U.S. military being ordered into action so frequently, often for missions like Syria that are considered optional?

Analysts offer up a host of reasons:

A Messy World: During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union often managed to impose order by propping up authoritarian leaders. No one saw this system as ideal, but it often prevented conflicts from erupting or spreading.

Syria offers a good example. As a superpower, the Soviets staunchly backed the late Syrian president, Hafez Assad, for many years. A much weaker Russia still supports his son, Bashar Assad, but this hasn't kept Syria or other Arab states from sliding into chaos.

U.S. military intervention in Syria would have been highly improbable during the Cold War because it could have provoked a major confrontation with the Soviets. Now the U.S. sees itself as the lone guarantor of world order and does not have to worry about a superpower rivalry.

"The Cold War acted as a governing force. The U.S. and the Soviets were often cautious because they were always concerned about an escalation to a nuclear war," said Jim Dubik, a retired Army lieutenant general now with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

More On Syria

Parallels

Limited U.S. Strikes ... Followed By Major Attacks On U.S.

When goods arrive in Houston, they may come in containers stacked high on huge ships or strung out on long lines of rail cars. But to get to the customer, those goods need to be put on trucks and driven to their final destinations.

And now with the oil and gas sectors booming, the demand for truckers is soaring. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says oil delivered to refineries by trucks shot up 38 percent between 2011 and 2012.

But while the need for truckers is growing, the ranks of well-trained drivers are shrinking as baby boomers hit retirement age.

"The driver pool is aging, and there are not enough young drivers coming out of truck-driving school to replace those drivers, at the same time that the demand for freight is increasing," said Brian Fielkow, president of Jetco Delivery, a Houston-based trucking company.

The American Trucking Association says about 3 million truckers are on the nation's roads today, but companies need about 30,000 more. And that shortage may balloon in coming years as the boomer-retirement wave slams into the energy-sector surge.

The trade association's latest figures show competition for drivers has become ferocious, causing truckers to flip from one employer to another. The most recent report shows the annual turnover rate among truckers is 97 percent.

With competition intense, earnings have been improving for truckers. James Stone, who has spent the past decade servicing firefighting equipment, wants to get into the field. He is studying for his commercial truck driver's license at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas.

Economy

A Labor Mismatch Means Trucking Jobs Go Unfilled