This Week in Congress

We'll be trying out some formatting tweaks in the coming weeks for the This Week/Today in Congress posts, the idea being to try to make them a little more reader (and skimmer) friendly. The series was originally designed with slightly different purposes in mind than I have for it today, so the change is overdue.

The idea now is to give you a quick one or two minute hit on where we left off last week (or yesterday, in the case of Today in Congress), and the top issues you're likely to see in the coming week. The full House floor schedule and the Senate calendar are still here, but I'll tuck them below the fold and see how it goes with just the commentary taking up front page real estate.

So here we go!

Last Week in Congress

Last week, Osama bin Laden was alive. This week, he's not! Other than that, though...

The Congress was in the last week of a two-week recess, during which several Republican House members found themselves facing hostile town hall audiences reacting to GOP budget and spending plans targeting Medicare and other social safety net programs for cuts, while extending still more tax cuts for the wealthy. That, of course, is thanks to the House?s agenda from the last week they were in session, during which they adopted both the cut-heavy continuing appropriations bill to keep the government funded for the rest of the year, and the ultra-regressive, Medicare-eliminating budget plan authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

This Week in Congress

Unchastened by their angry constituents, the House GOP plan was to come back like gangbusters this week, bringing to the floor not one but two ACA repeal bills. Not one but two oil drilling free-for-all bills. And last but not least the infamous H.R. 3, hiking taxes on anyone who takes deductions for the cost of health insurance plans that cover abortion?which 87% of private plans in America do. (If you prefer getting the background on that in video format, Main Street Insider has you covered.)

It remains to be seen whether the biggest 9/12 moment ever will derail any of this. I doubt it, but it's going to look a little petty to "respond" to the killing of Osama bin Laden with sloganeering about "Obamacare," and yet another abortion freak-out. Don't know yet whether it'll temporarily delay the plans to make the first order of business for the week (well, second) naming a federal courthouse after George W. Bush.

In the Senate, another two non-controversial federal judge nominees are expected to slip through the filibuster noose. And word is that Majority Leader Harry Reid will seek to force a vote on the Ryan budget in the Senate, in retaliation for which Minority Leader (in name only) Mitch McConnell says he?ll try to force a vote on President Obama?s budget. Who knew that having a vote on a Republican budget was something the Republican ?leader? felt would require retaliation?

Speaking of the budget, have you got 90 seconds amid all the Bin Laden excitement to catch up on just what this "People's Budget" put forward by the Congressional Progressive Caucus is? C'mon, 90 seconds. For the federal budget. It's the latest of the Main Street Insider 90 Second Summaries, which I encourage you to check out as they're released each Monday.

That's the short version of the "news you need to know" in order to keep up with happenings in Congress. For those of you who come by to wade through the nitty gritty details, we've still got 'em. But we're storing them below the fold, accompanied as always by the committee schedule for the week.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/lO91PUgChlU/-This-Week-in-Congress

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