The House and Senate are both in session this week, with a busy month planned before the Memorial Day recess and only 16 weeks remaining on a legislative calendar cut short by the two parties' national conventions and an early October adjournment target.
The heavy lifting on fiscal 2001 appropriations begins in earnest in the coming days, with markups scheduled in both House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees.
The House Military Construction and Legislative Branch Appropriations subcommittees plan to mark up next year's spending bills Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the House Labor-HHS Subcommittee will hold a hearing on children and environmental health issues.
Across the Capitol, the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is slated to mark up its fiscal 2001 bill Thursday afternoon; earlier Thursday, the full committee will meet to approve the subcommittee spending allocations for fiscal 2001.
In addition, the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee will hear from public witnesses Wednesday, and the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee will review the budget requests of the National Science Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Thursday.