Lawmakers return to a packed schedule

LAWMAKERS RETURN TO A PACKED SCHEDULE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Manu Raju]
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for battle over a packed agenda that will dominate the Capitol until Christmas Day, and are kicking off the year-end push by escalating their rhetoric over funding for the Iraq war. With less than four weeks until Christmas, Congress will attempt to clear all 11 remaining appropriations bills, a patch of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), a bicameral energy bill, the stalled farm bill, a bill to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and a free trade agreement with Peru. Meanwhile, President Bush’s $196 billion wartime supplemental spending package remains stalled, and both sides are trying to pin the blame on the other for holding up dollars for military operations in Iraq. Fresh back from a congressional visit to Latin America, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to come out swinging Monday at a Capitol Hill news conference highlighting Democratic efforts to provide funding for troops. The senator will almost certainly blame Republicans for blocking last month a $50-billion Iraq bill that called for troops to return home by the end of 2008.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lawmakers-return-to-a-packed-schedul...
* Congress, Returning From Break, Has Much Work to Finish Before the Next One
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/washington/03cong.html?ref=todayspaper
* Old Tensions Test Congress
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119664099934911173.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
* President, Congress Ready to Begin the Next Round
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/02/AR200712...
* Post-Thanksgiving, Congress still has a full plate
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071203/a_congress03.art.htm

* Congress is back so the locale for media policy action shifts to Capitol Hill this week. The action kicks off tomorrow in the Senate with consideration of a bill to slow down the change in FCC media ownership rules. See http://www.benton.org/?q=event