This Week on Capitol Hill

Budget '09: The Senate could polish off left-over budget business this week, voting on a bundle of nine (out of twelve) spending bills to cover costs for the current fiscal year. Opting to avoid a budget tussle with President Bush last year, Congress put off passing all non-defense spending items, instead approving a "continuing resolution" to maintain funding at 2008 levels through March 6. Senators may okay a House-approved "omnibus" bill (HR 1105) sending the president a final budget this week, but lawmakers are just as likely to get tripped up by extraneous amendments  to save DC voucher programs and slow up EPA rulings on polar bears (in which case they'll spin out another continuing resolution to keep the government running until a final budget is passed).

• more about the '09 Budget

Housing Help: Following up on a mortgage rescue plan proposed by the administration last month, the House will try again this week to vote on a measure letting bankruptcy judges restructure (or "cram down") mortgages to levels homeowners can handle. The bill, HR 1106, would also revise the "Hope for Homeowners" bill passed in '08, intended to encourage banks to voluntarily refinance up to 400,000 mortgages. So far that bill has only provided hope for 25 families.

• more on the housing crisis and DC's response

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 9, 2009.