Monday: Prepping for the tax bill

Assuming a rule is approved, the House is expected to start considering the rule on Tuesday on the floor.

While this work is being readied, the House and Senate have easy schedules today. The House meets at noon for speeches and 2 p.m. to start work on eight suspension bills, none of which is controversial. They are:

S. 384, to extend the authority of the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp to raise funds for breast cancer research.

H.R. 2845, the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act. This bill would reauthorize through 2015 federal pipeline safety programs under the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which oversees safety programs for gas and petroleum.

H.R. 2668, to name a border patrol station in Arizona after a border patrol agent killed in 2010.

Several bills naming post offices: H.R. 3220, H.R. 3246, H.R. 2158, H.R. 2767, and a bill to rename a courthouse in Jackson, Tenn., H.R. 1264.

The Senate also meets at 2 p.m., and at 4:30 p.m. will begin debate on two ambassador nominations. They are Norman Eisen, to be ambassador to the Czech Republic, and Mari Carmen Aponte, to be ambassador to El Salvador. Votes are planned for 5:30 p.m.