This week: Lawmakers focus on debt talks as time runs out for supercommittee

Recent fault lines have emerged on the panel, with Democrats pushing for further economic stimulus and tax increases as part of a $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has rejected that proposal.

On Tuesday, the supercommittee will hear from the chairmen of Obama’s debt commission, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.

{mosads}Their broad plan, which includes tax hikes opposed by Republicans and entitlement cuts opposed by Democrats, has won some bipartisan support but not enough to send it to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

In fact, four members of the White House panel that opposed the plan — Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Dave Camp (R-Mich.), and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) — now sit on the supercommittee.

The authors of another proposal — Alice Rivlin, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, and former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) — will meet with the panel. Their proposal was a mixed bag of spending cuts and tax hikes that would cut the deficit by nearly $6 trillion over a decade.

Tuesday also marks the self-imposed deadline for the top lawmakers on both Senate and House Agriculture committees to offer their recommendations to the supercommittee for cuts to farm programs.

The panels have said they would offer no more than $23 billion in cuts before beginning work on a new farm bill next year. Recommendations could include changing direct payments to farmers into a type of income insurance program.

The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee will start off a two-day meeting on Tuesday to discuss the course of the nation’s monetary policy. No major shifts are expected from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), given that the Fed just recently embarked on “Operation Twist” — a portfolio reorientation that has the central bank loading up on $400 billion of long-term securities while selling the same amount of shorter-term ones.

The meeting will make news because Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is slated to give a press conference Wednesday, after the FOMC issues its statement. The session with reporters is Bernanke’s third such event this year; they are an attempt to promote transparency and have the Fed further explain to the public the rationale behind its moves.

On Monday, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling is slated to speak before the National Economists Club, and GOP hopeful Herman Cain will visit the American Enterprise Institute to discuss his 9-9-9 tax reform plan.

The Senate is set on that same day to take up the appropriations “minibus” containing the 2012 Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Science, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development bills. Final passage is expected Tuesday and would trigger a House-Senate conference on the bills.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said last week other bills could be added to the minibus. He also said work is beginning on a one-month continuing resolution to fund the government past Nov. 19.

On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will step back under the congressional lens, as a House Financial Services subcommittee explores how the new bureau has functioned in its first 100 days. Raj Date, the special adviser to the president who succeeded Elizabeth Warren, will testify on the range of initiatives taken by the bureau since it officially began work in July.

On Thursday, the Senate Permanent subcommittee on Investigations will delve into the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, discussing how regulators are coming along in efforts to curb speculation and ensure compliance with the sweeping Wall Street overhaul.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) will be talking tax reform at an event the same day hosted by National Journal.