Congress begins this week with leftovers on its plate that hardly anyone wants to deal with. These include the stalled tax extenders bill in the Senate and the war supplemental appropriations bill in the House.

Congress found itself mostly tied up in knots this week, as both the Senate and the House chambers tried to find votes for passage of bills that have huge price tags, and have no offsets or spending cuts to pay the cost of the bills.

The Senate this week will continue trying to make headway in passing the $115 billion tax extenders bill. Remember, this is the bill that adds about $60 billion to our debt.

Congress is back from its week-long Memorial Day break trying to spend more money without paying the bills.

Congress comes back to D.C. today after a weeklong break designed to allowlawmakers to celebrate Memorial Day in their home states and districts.

While dozens and dozens of members of Congress fled the country on congressional fact-finding trips, known as CODELS (Congressional Delegations), the majority returned to spend at least a little time with the folkswho actually hired them to do their jobs.

While Congress is enjoying a scheduled week-long recess, I thought it might be interesting to let the readers of Washington Week know about some congressional committee actions that occurred before Congress left town last Friday, May 28. These committee actions could eventually have a meaningful effect on our lives.

Congress attempted to tackle a months worth of legislation last week in an effort to unclog the legislative constipation that has been occurring since Easter. While their intentions were admirable, the outcome was a complete failure.

During this upcoming week in Congress, both the House and Senate are expected to consider bills that will cause the current debt limit to swell like Jiffy Pop popcorn on a hot burner.

The U.S. Senate spent a precious five weeks of floor time debating the financial reform bill and passed the bill Thursday night by a vote of 59 to 39 before leaving for the week.

The U.S. Senate hopes to conclude the month-long debate on the financial reform bill by week's end, even if the majority leader needs to force a procedural vote promoting a 60-vote threshold to bring debate to a close. This will not only limit the number of hours remaining for debate to 30 hours, but also keeps the remaining amendments germane and on subject.