This Week on Capitol Hill

Budget blueprint: The House and Senate take the first major step in the budget process this week, voting on drafts of the "budget resolution" which acts as a blueprint for the twelve spending bills Congress will churn out for '09. Weighing in at $3 trillion, the current drafts top the president's budget proposal by about $20 billion and could call for politically tricky tax provisions - to pay for dropping the Alternative Minimum Tax and adding alternative energy incentives.

Earmark roulette: With both parties blustering they're serious about axing earmarks (cash for politicians' pet projects), the unthinkable may just happen this week: Congress could vote to abolish earmarks outright - at least for this year. It's reportedly a game of chicken, with each side hoping they'll call each other's bluff (few lawmakers actually want to get rid of earmarks), but - who knows - it could backfire on our elected leaders and leave us with a bridge-to-nowhere-free budget.

Ethics & wiretaps: House members are still waiting for another chance to vote for quasi-independent ethics commission, which got pulled from the floor two weeks ago, as well as finalize a surveillance bill that would let feds tap into foreign calls with a warrant and give telecoms immunity from lawsuits stemming from an earlier illegal wiretap program.

For more on what to expect in the year to come, see cJ's Ahead To '08 overview.

If you want to let your Congressfolk know where you stand on any of the issues above, you can email them through Congress.org, because...

Hey, it's your democracy too.

- teamJoe

Next update: March 31, 2008 after Congress comes back from Easter break. Happy Spring!