OVERNIGHT MONEY: Buzzer beater

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who said that Democrats had grown a backbone during this debate, called her chamber’s vote a repudiation of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his fellow House Republicans. “The strong vote in the Senate tonight rejected the ‘Cantor Doctrine’ – which was a dangerous doctrine,” Landrieu told reporters at an evening press conference with top Senate Democrats. “Which would have put us in a very, very tough position in all future disasters.”

Earlier in the day, Cantor’s office had called out Landrieu, signaling that she was “putting politics ahead of Americans coping with disasters by blocking much-needed FEMA funds and threatening a government shutdown.” Republicans have argued that it was far from uncommon for disaster relief to be offset in the past.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR:

Home is where the heartburn is: A fresh set of numbers on home prices around the country will be out on Tuesday, providing the latest indication of how one of the gloomiest sectors of a pretty gloomy economy is faring.

The latest version of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index will come one day after the Commerce Department reported that the sales of new homes slid to its lowest level in six months, capping off four straight months of declines.

New home sales are thought to play a particularly important role in the economy, as the construction of all those new homes is the bread and butter for much of the building and related industries.

The continued struggles of the housing market drove the Federal Reserve to announce last Wednesday that it was doubling down on its efforts to boost the housing market by reinvesting proceeds from its mortgage bond investments back into those same mortgage securities in a bid to lower borrowing costs for potential homeowners.

However, the last report from Case-Shiller, released in August, did contain some nuggets of good news. While home prices in the 20 cities tracked by the index were down 5.9 percent from one year ago, home prices as whole increased by 3.6 percent in the second quarter of the year.

An even more hopeful sign was the fact that home prices were up in 19 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked, and no city reported a new low through June, perhaps an indication that the housing market may have finally found a bottom.

The general consensus is that Tuesday’s report, which will provide home price data for May, June and July, will show prices climbing slightly.

Postal workers on the march: With the U.S. Postal Service in financial crisis, postal workers will rally on Tuesday in Washington in support of their favored solution to its woes. The American Postal Workers Union; National Association of Letter Carriers; National Postal Mail Handlers Union; and National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association will rally in favor of H.R.1351, sponsored by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), with 215 co-sponsors.

The bill would recalculate the pre-payments that USPS must make to the federal government to fund retirement benefits for workers. USPS is seeking permission to avoid a pre-payment due this month that it says it cannot afford. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have introduced rival legislation that could radically shrink the post office’s range of services and its workforce.

Supercommittee slogs on: Deficit-cutters continue to look for a way to cut $1.2 trillion from the budget over 10 years despite the conventional wisdom they are doomed to fall short. The 12-member supercommittee met for hours in the Capitol Visitor Center on Monday combing over the details.

President Obama threatened last week to veto any committee bill that cuts entitlements without raising taxes, while the House GOP continues to say taxes are off the table. Low-hanging fruit remains, though, in mandatory spending such as farm subsidies and federal worker benefits.

Presidential daybook: The president ends his three-day Western sojourn on Tuesday, leaving the West Coast to push his jobs plan in Colorado – a potentially key state in next year’s election that he flipped to the Democratic column in 2008. Obama has long called education a key investment that policymakers need to protect, and he is expected to visit a Denver high school on Tuesday to talk up the $25 billion for school infrastructure included in his jobs bill.

The president will head east – and ultimately back to Washington on Tuesday – after headlining a town-hall meeting hosted by LinkedIn in Silicon Valley Monday, where he heaped praise upon the tech industry and continued to press his case that the wealthiest need to pay more in taxes.

BREAKING MONDAY:

Russian finance minister resigns under pressure: Russian President Dmitri Medvedev fired his finance minister on Monday, creating uncertainty for the Russian economy and for its bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Alexei Kudrin had over the weekend vowed to quit the government next year if Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin switch places next year as planned.

Kudrin, a favorite of Westernizers and a fiscal conservative, wanted to be prime minister himself and does not support Medvedev on spending. Kudrin has also been seen as a major promoted of WTO membership. If the WTO and Russia agree on accession terms, Congress will have to vote on the matter.

AFL-CIO puts its foot down on Colombia FTA: Union President Richard Trumka made clear in a letter to Obama on Monday that unions still do not want Congress to enact the Colombia trade agreement.

The Hill’s Kevin Bogardus reports that Trumka detailed the killings of 15 labor leaders in Colombia since a joint U.S.-Colombia labor action plan was put in place in April.

“Simply put, Colombia should not be rewarded with a trade agreement until it develops a proven track record of ensuring that workers can exercise the fundamental rights of free association and collective bargaining; preventing violence against union leaders and other social justice advocates; and bringing to justice those who perpetrated such crimes,” Trumka writes in his letter to Obama.

Obama is poised to submit the Colombia deal, along the stalled Korea and Panama trade pacts, to Congress this fall if a deal with Republicans on worker benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program can be worked out.

UBS crumbles under rogue trades.  Reuters has a blow-by-blow story detailing how a rogue trader’s actions have threatened to cripple banking giant UBS and what they mean for industry regulations.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

— New home sales slide to six-month low

— Fed official defends controversial moves after GOP critiques

— FEMA funds could last through the week

— Europe should pay for Europe’s debt crisis, says House GOP member

— House Dems tell SEC to finish up conflict mineral rules ASAP

— GOP losing support on deficit, poll finds

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