This Week on Capitol Hill

While the committees of Congress continue to hew together a massive $800 billion - $1.3 trillion economic rescue bill and the Oval Office goes into full foreign policy swing, action on the House and Senate floor is light on this shortened week.

Discrimination by paycheck: The Senate may okay a pay discrimination bill, HR 1, passed in the House two weeks ago. The "Lilly Ledbetter" bill extends the deadline for pay discrimination lawsuits - from the time a worker is hired to any time a worker gets a paycheck.

Kid's healthcare: After coming up short in '07, Congress will try again early this year to expand health care for kids. Last week the House okayed HR 2, increasing funding for SCHIP, the state-run program that covers low-income kids that aren't low income enough to qualify for Medicaid, by $32 billion over 5 years, upping the number of children covered from 7 to 11 million. The Senate could follow up this week.

Taming TARP: When Congress okayed a $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill last fall, it only signed a check for the first $350 billion, leaving itself the option of holding back the second half of the pot. The Treasury came knocking this month for the next installment, prompting the House to craft a bill that attached strings to the second $350b - including a requirement that a slice be used to help homeowners directly. The Senate made that House bill moot by voting to give the administration the key to the cash last week (both chambers would have had to agree to deny the funding), but the House will still go through the motions of voting on its bill, HR 384, this week if only for symbolic reasons.

• read more on the economic crisis and federal financial bailouts

The rest of Congress' early '09 line-up is still in the works. While a few of the president-elect's campaign initiatives will be rolled into the stimulus package - including green energy investment and middle class tax cuts - no one's saying which of Obama's major reform promises will top the agenda, although a few low-hanging fruit have been hinted at for early passage.

• catch cJ's rolling tally of congressional items in Outlook '09

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: January 26, 2009.