Push comes to shove this week in conference committee negotiations over tax legislation, with a battle brewing over gas taxes, the child tax credit, capital gains and individual retirement accounts, tax breaks for education and other elements of the sprawling package.
House and Senate tax bill negotiators and their staffs are expected to continue meeting behind closed doors this week to work out a final compromise; Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has set a Friday target for completing both the tax conference and the concurrent conference on spending portions of reconciliation legislation.
Lott last week told CongressDaily it would not be "that tough" to resolve differences over the tax legislation. "We know what the administration's choke points are and they know what our choke points are," Lott said.
The historic debate over the future of Medicare promises to command the attention of many on Capitol Hill this week, as interested parties wait to see which, if any, of the Senate's ground breaking changes to the program will be agreed upon by the House. Staff have been burning the weekend oil addressing some of the less controversial aspects of the proposals, which are likely to be discussed by conferees at a meeting expected to be called for Tuesday.
The big ticket items, including the Senate Finance Committee proposals to gradually raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, to increase Medicare premiums for wealthier beneficiaries and to institute a $5 co-pay for home health care, are likely to be discussed later in the week. One source said that, with the tight deadline for finishing work on the package, no further formal conference committee sessions regarding Medicare are expected to be held.
Also on the Medicare front, the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee will hear testimony at Thursday from HHS Inspector General June Gibbs Brown concerning the Medicare program audit that turned up $23 billion in improper payments. Brown will be asked to give her assessment of the audit, and the committee will be seeking to determine who is responsible for the improper payments.
This week also will be hectic for appropriators on both sides of Capitol Hill.
On Tuesday, the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up its bill, while the Energy and Water and Commerce- Justice-State bills may go to the full House committee.
On the floor, the House is slated to consider the VA-HUD, Agriculture and Foreign Operations funding measures.
On the Senate side, the full Appropriations Committee will meet Tuesday to consider the Legislative Branch, Commerce- Justice-State and Treasury-Postal bills, and is tentatively scheduled to meet Thursday on the Agriculture, Military Construction and Transportation bills.
On Tuesday, the Senate Agriculture and Transportation Appropriations subpanels will mark up their bills, and the VA-HUD Subcommittee is tentatively scheduled to consider its bill.
The Interior Subcommittee is tentatively scheduled to mark up its bill Friday.
Tobacco will remain in Congress' tray this week, as the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday at 10 a.m. continues its inquiry into the recent settlement between the industry and 40 state attorneys general.
Tentatively scheduled to testify are the attorneys general of Connecticut and Minnesota, Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, and Robert Levy of the Cato Institute.
The Senate Democratic task force looking at the tobacco issue is also expected to meet this week, although no date has been set.
The task force expects to be briefed during the next couple of weeks by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, as well as by the state attorneys general and tobacco industry officials who negotiated the settlement.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, plagued by poor scores on the TV-excitement rating scale, may start to generate a little more heat this week as the committee begins to focus on Democratic fundraiser John Huang, who, as of late last week, was not expected to make an appearance before the panel.
On Tuesday, the committee will be hearing from several individuals associated with the Lippo bank, including James Per Lee, Harold Arthur, James Alexander and Juliana Umtomo.
Sources say the committee Wednesday may begin bringing in some officials from the Commerce Department, where Huang was stationed before moving over to the Democratic National Committee.
Following are the latest available schedules for other congressional action in the week ahead:
CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP: House Speaker Gingrich will address the American Farm Bureau Federation at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Holiday Inn on Capitol Hill, with the topics including budget reconciliation and taxes, transportation and the environment.
On Tuesday afternoon, House Majority Leader Armey and Joint Economic Chairman Saxton will hold a news conference on economic growth.
Also on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Gephardt will speak to the United Steelworkers of America at 7:30 p.m. at the Omni Shoreham.
BANKING: On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Financial Institutions and Regulatory Relief and the Housing Opportunity and Community Development subcommittees will hold a joint oversight hearing on the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and problems surrounding mortgage origination.
Witnesses include Federal Reserve Board member Lawrence Meyer.
On Wednesday, the House Banking Oversight and Investigations and the Capital Markets, Securities and Government Sponsored Enterprises subcommittees will hold a joint oversight hearing on the benefits and risks of government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And Thursday, the House Commerce Finance and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee will hold its second hearing on financial services modernization legislation.
EDUCATION: The House Education and the Workforce Postsecondary Education Subcommittee will hold hearings Tuesday and Thursday on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
Assistant Education Secretary Judith Heumann will testify Tuesday on the ramifications of the act for deaf students, while Thursday's hearing will cover campus crime and regulatory reform.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday on the nomination of Jamie Clark Rappaport to be director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
On Thursday, the committee has scheduled a hearing on climate change.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing Thursday on nominations for the heads of the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Office of Surface Mining, as well as for a board member of the U.S. Uranium Enrichment Corp.
The House Resources Committee is holding a full committee markup Wednesday.
And Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Thompson and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., are speaking today at the Brookings Institution on legislation they have introduced to reform the regulatory process.
HEALTH: The House Education and the Workforce Early Childhood, Youth and Families Subcommittee will hold a hearing Wednesday on reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, which provides nutrition services such as meals-on-wheels and abuse prevention programs for the elderly.
The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on Thursday will hold a hearing on the status of state regulation and standards for child day care.
INSURANCE: The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday will hold a hearing on the Auto Choice Reform Act.
JUDICIARY: The House Judiciary Immigration and Claims Subcommittee Tuesday will mark up the Expanded War Crimes Act and a bill amending the 1994 Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act to eliminate a special rule for issuing citizenship certificates for children born outside the United States.
On the Senate side, the Judiciary Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition Subcommittee Wednesday will hear testimony on the Television Program Improvement Act.
The bill would provide an antitrust exemption for the broadcast and cable industries to allow them to collaborate on voluntary guidelines on violence, sexual content, vulgar language and the lack of educational programs for children.
One question that will be raised is whether the measure is covered by a moratorium on TV legislation, included as part of last week's agreement creating a new content-based TV ratings system.
LABOR: The House Education and the Workforce Oversight Subcommittee will hold a hearing Wednesday on ergonomics.
TRADE: The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, which had scheduled a hearing for this Wednesday on the newly released administration report on how well the North American Free Trade Agreement has worked, has postponed that hearing at the request of the administration, a Ways and Means spokesman said late last week.
The Trade Subcommittee is also scheduled to hold a markup of legislation extending most favored nation trade status to Mongolia, which already has it, and to provide MFN to Laos, which currently does not. The full Ways and Means panel is scheduled to mark up the two MFN bills on Thursday.
TRANSPORTATION: House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Shuster and ranking member James Oberstar, D-Minn., take their drive for more transportation funds on the road today to Atlanta and to Miami later this week.
Shuster has events planned to highlight large highway projects and transit projects in those cities and the need for more federal help to fund those projects.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard Subcommittee on Wednesday will markup the 1997 Coast Guard Reauthorization Act.
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