OVERNIGHT MONEY: Lining up for Lew

And Lew’s Cayman investment, which he sold at a loss when he returned to public service, could serve more as an excuse to blast the White House for hypocrisy. Republicans have noted that President Obama himself has roundly criticized the very building that housed the corporate entity behind Lew’s investment. Add in the fact that Lew worked for an institution that needed billions in bailout dollars to stay afloat in the financial crisis, and there is the recipe for some pointed questions at tomorrow’s hearing.

{mosads}Democrats also are looking to pin Lew down on some of his less well-documented opinions, but mainly as a matter of due diligence than overarching concern about his qualifications.

All told, barring some bombshell, it looks as if Lew will stay on the right track to become the president’s next Treasury secretary.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR

Postal party: Lawmakers are jump-starting their efforts to overhaul the Postal Service in the 113th Congress with a Wednesday hearing in the Senate.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, union leaders and even Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) are scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security panel, now chaired by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

The hearing will come a week after Donahoe announced that USPS was scrapping Saturday delivery of letters this summer, a decision for which the postmaster general could take some heat.

Postal reform remains on the docket after lawmakers failed to reach a bipartisan agreement before the end of the last Congress. The Senate did pass a measure, co-sponsored by Carper, in April 2012, but the House failed to move on a measure written by Issa.

Switching sides: Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf heads to the House side of the Capitol on Wednesday go through his budget forecast with the House Budget Committee after spending Tuesday morning with the Senate Budget panel. 

The CBO analysis anticipates the federal budget deficit will fall to $845 billion in 2013 but gradually return to more than $1 trillion a year later this decade. 

Elmendorf chatted with the Senate Budget Committee about CBO’s most recent report about the state of the economy. Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) made a pretty strong statement that she will push for a budget that includes tax increases and stimulus, while expressing her disdain for austerity, especially as the economy is struggling to get back on its feet. 

All the way to Asheville: President Obama’s first stop after his State of the Union address on Tuesday night will be Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday. 

A local paper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, says the president should expect protests from the left and the right on a broad range of issues during his brief trip to the mountains to talk about jobs and the economy.

Housing chat: The House Financial Services Committee will examine the troubled financial situation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) with its nearly appointed commissioner, Carol Galante. 

Lawmakers will ask Galante about an independent report released earlier in November that found the FHA is facing a $16.3 billion loss on its portfolio of home mortgages, raising concern the agency could need a government bailout.

But Galante is already making changes to the agency that some lawmakers, including Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), say will help shore up the agency’s balance sheet. 

Sequester questions: The House Armed Services Committee will explore on Wednesday the effects of what the across-the-board cuts to discretionary and defense spending would mean during a hearing featuring a wide range of Defense Department officials. 

Recess appointments: Also on Wednesday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee will discuss what a recent court ruling invalidating a trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) means for the workforce. The court ruled that the Senate was officially in session during the appointments and that President Obama was not permitted to put the new board members into place. Senate Republicans are calling for those members to step down immediately. 

The state of small business: The House Small Business Committee will examine the health of the nation’s small-business community, including an examination of access to capital and other economic concerns facing small-business owners. 

“It is imperative that Washington addresses the top barriers to growth that small companies face,” Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said. 

“Under this Administration, small business owners are not confident about the economic environment because of inconsistent access to capital, the wave of federal regulations, including those from the health care law, and a growing federal debt.”

LOOSE CHANGE

Well, that can’t be good: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that last-minute partisan moves by Senate Democrats to replace a looming $85 billion in automatic spending cuts probably mean they will happen.

“It is pretty clear to me that the sequester is going to go into effect,” McConnell said. 

“I see no evidence that the House plans to deal with this matter before the end of the month.”

McConnell was reacting to an announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday that Democrats would unveil a sequester replacement by the end of this week for votes in the final hours before the March 1 sequester deadline.

Reid told reporters the Democratic bill will be made up of half spending cuts and half tax increases.

Seeing red: Union members took to the streets of Washington on Tuesday to denounce the automatic spending cuts from sequestration that are set to force furloughs across the federal government.

Leaders of the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) rallied workers on Capitol Hill who will likely be hurt by the spending cuts. 

“They want to see our red. They want to see us bleed,” said J. David Cox, AFGE’s president.

“We have to end this sequestration madness right now.” 

Union leaders warned the budget cuts would hurt public services and create job losses across the country.

Casey bats for Kerry: Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) will join the Senate Finance Committee, filling the vacancy left by now Secretary of State John Kerry. 

“Bob has a proven record of standing up for the middle class on economic issues, and he will make a valuable addition to the Finance Committee,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). 

Casey wasn’t the only change in assignments on Tuesday. 

The new senator from Massachusetts, Mo Cowan (D), got spots on Small Business and the Agriculture panels. 

Klobuchar takes over JEC: On Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was named Senate chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), the bicameral congressional committee that oversees economic policy. Klobuchar has served on the JEC since 2007.

“In order to compete in the global economy we need to be a country that thinks, that invents, that makes things in America and exports them to the world,” Klobuchar said.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS 

MBA Mortgage Index: The Mortgage Bankers Association releases its weekly report on mortgage application volume. 

Retail Sales: The Commerce Department will release its January report measuring the total receipts of retail stores. Sales figures are widely followed as the most timely indicator of broad consumer spending patterns, which represent 70 of economic activity.

Export Prices-Import Prices: The Commerce Department releases its January report tracking trends in exports and imports, with the export data worth watching for indications of how the global economy is faring. Imports provide an indication of domestic demand, but given the severe lag of this report relative to other consumption indicators, it is not particularly valuable.

Business Inventories: The Commerce Department will release its December report on sales and inventory from all three stages of the manufacturing process: manufacturing, wholesale and retail.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

— Baucus, Hatch outline priorities for a US-EU trade deal

— Senate Banking lays out agenda

— Murray argues against austerity at debut Budget hearing

— Budget Committee members continue fiscal fight

— Credit unions press lawmakers for regulatory relief

— NFIB confidence index improves, but still low

Catch us on Twitter: @VickoftheHill, @peteschroeder, @elwasson and @berniebecker3

Tips and feedback, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com