–House Set To Pass One Year Extension of Bush Tax Cuts
–House, Senate Leaders Intensify Talks on FY’13 Stop-Gap
–House To Consider Farm Bill, Senate Debates Cyber-Security

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – With the August recess looming, the House and
Senate will try to wrap up several pending items while Democrats and
Republicans are poised to send political messages in Congress’ final
week of deliberations until September.

The House will vote this week on a one-year extension of the
Bush-era tax cuts and on legislation that would create an expedited
process for considering tax reform next year.

The House is expected to pass the tax bills on a party line vote.
Last week, the Senate narrowly approved a Democratic plan to extend the
Bush tax cuts for those families making $250,000 or less.

Both the tax cut bill the House is expected to pass this week and
the measure the Senate approved last week are largely partisan efforts
to frame the tax cut debate after the November elections.

House and Senate leaders are involved in intense talks on a
stop-gap spending that would fund the government for several months into
the 2013 fiscal year.

The new fiscal year begins on Oct 1. and so far none of the 12
spending bills for FY’13 have been approved by Congress.

Given the raft of key fiscal issues that will be under debate after
the November elections, there is some sentiment among congressional
leaders to remove a threat of a government shutdown from the coming
budget debate.

Some leaders are calling for a six month stop-gap spending bill
while others prefer a three month stop-gap. It remains unclear if the
FY’13 stop-gap can be crafted and passed this week or if the matter will
be resolved when Congress returns in September.

The full House will consider legislation this week that would
extend the current farm bill for another year and attach a drought
relief package to the measure to help distressed ranchers and farmers.

The Senate will continue to debate a cyber-security bill this week.

In other action this week on Capitol Hill, a subcommittee of the
Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the defense spending bill
for FY’13.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m.
ET on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s semi-annual report to
Congress. Richard Cordray, the CFPB director, will testify on the
report.

One of the Senate Banking panel’s subcommittees will hold a hearing
Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET on streamlining and strengthening HUD’s rental
housing assistance programs.

Another subcommittee of the Senate Banking panel will hold a
hearing Thursday at 9 a.m. ET on the tri-party repo market. Matthew
Eichner, the deputy director of the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of
Research and Statistics, will testify as will several representatives
from the banking industry.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday at 2:30
p.m. ET on legislation pertaining to the tax on sales made over the
Internet.

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday at 10:30
a.m. ET on the taxation of business entities. The session will examine
the different taxation of firms structured as corporations and those
structured as pass-throughs.

Two subcommittees of the House Financial Services Committee will
hold hearings this week.

One subcommittee will hold mark-up several bills Wednesday at 10:15
a.m. ET. One bill will modify the Securities Investor Protection Act of
1970, another bill pertains to the regulation of municipal investors,
and another bill allows for exemptions for low-revenue companies from
some SEC rules.

The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday at
1 p.m. ET on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s impact on small
business. The CFPB’s chief, Richard Cordray, will testify.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MFU$$$,MCU$$$]