Items Tagged With Citizen Joe

After a few fumbles in the Senate, Iraq gets passed back to the House this week where members will vote on three smallish war-related bills - one requiring the administration regularly update Congress on its withdrawal plans, another beefing up the role of the Inspector General in Iraq and Afghanistan and one pointing out that contractors in Iraq do fall under US criminal law.

The Senate will try to polish off its defense authorization bill, before notching off two more '08 budget bills - a defense appropriation bill (the one that actually signs the checks) and a Commerce-Justice-Science bill. The $459b military bill doesn't include $200b the Pentagon has asked to cover the wars; that'll come up later this year.

Both chambers are bracing for an expected presidential veto on the children's health bill they passed last week. Although it's a safe bet senators will override a veto, House members may not be able to squeeze out enough votes to keep the bill alive.

The House may also cut homeowners a break this week, nixing taxes on forgiven mortgage debt.

It's children's health deja vu all over again, with Congress looking like it'll pass a bill expanding health coverage to up to 4m low income kids (or 2m according to conservative estimates). This version looks a lot like the bill Congress couldn't get past a Bush veto last month; but with minor changes Dems hope they'll win over some Republican votes, although probably not enough to override a second expected veto.

The House continues its drive to clean up all its budget bills by Independence Day, this week possibly voting on Energy & Water, Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations spending bills.