House and Senate Cloakroom: February 28 – March 4, 2011

Maggie Piggott / February 27, 2011

House Cloakroom

Analysis: The House returns next week from the Presidents’ Day recess to tackle a shortened two week Continuing Resolution (CR) package unveiled on Friday that includes more than $4 billion in spending cuts. HR 1, passed in the House on February 12th, cut spending by $61 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year, but the Senate has refused to take up the package and, in general, refused to get serious about making significant spending reductions in any kind of bill. According to the House Appropriations Committee, the short term CR will be on the floor on Tuesday and will include cuts suggested in the Obama administration’s Fiscal 2012 budget terminating eight programs for a total of $1.24 billion as well as remaining earmarks in a CR bill passed in December totaling $2.7 billion. The current bill funding the government expires on Friday, March 4th.  See this to strip through all the rhetoric in the budget cutting numbers.

Major Floor Action:

• Continuing Resolution – Current bill funding the government expires on Friday, March 4th. This measure would be an extension of two weeks.

Major Committee Action:

• The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a full committee hearing on the “Impact of Health Care Overhaul on Medicaid and the States”.
• The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives will hold a hearing on “DC School Voucher Program Oversight”.
• The House Financial Services Committee will hold a full committee hearing on “Government Sponsored Enterprises Overhaul”.
• The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold a hearing on “EPA Greenhouse Gas Regulations and Jobs”.
• The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit will hold a hearing on the “Effect of Dodd-Frank on Small Businesses” (more…)