The House and Senate Cloakroom: February 8 – 12, 2010

Dan Ziegler /

House Cloakroom: February 8 – 12

Analysis:

Last week President Obama released his new budget which would spend an additional $1.7 trillion. Heritage budget analyst Brian Riedl breaks that down in his analysis of the budget here.  On top of that the House passed and sent to the President a $1.9 trillion dollar debt limit increase.

As the Senate moves to take up a supposed “jobs” bill, the House with pivot back to health care.  The final language is still being worked out but they expect to take up a bill to remove antitrust exemptions for health insurers, which is a provision that does have some bi-partisan support. This could be sign that Congress could pivot to taking up smaller portions of the broader health care reform bill.

Lastly, the House is also expected to take up an Intelligence Authorization bill. (more…)