Week ahead: Showdown set for nominees

Additionally, the Senate Banking Committee will vote Tuesday on the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Jason Furman to serve as chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

{mosads}On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will discuss his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress with the House Financial Services Committee and on Thursday with the Senate Banking Committee. Questions from lawmakers are likely to center on when the Fed will begin tapering its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.

Also Wednesday, a Senate Banking subcommittee will hold a hearing on consumer debt issues with officials from the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission.

The House and Senate remain far apart on budgetary issues, but appropriators in both chambers are nonetheless scheduled to push forward next week on spending bills.

The most controversial is a House measure that cuts IRS funding by 24 percent.

On that front, House Republicans will delve back into the IRS’s targeting practices.

The Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is scheduled to hold a Thursday hearing examining how and why tax-exempt applications for conservative groups were held up.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the panel’s ranking member, on Friday charged that Russell George, the Treasury inspector general who investigated the targeting of conservative groups, withheld key information and should also appear at the hearing.

On Wednesday, the House Small Business Committee gets into the act, welcoming Danny Werfel, the IRS’s interim leader, to discuss how smaller companies are chosen for audits.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday about a Republican proposal to overhaul the housing finance system.

Elsewhere in the tax world, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) will update the Economic Club of Washington on their tax reform efforts on Thursday.

On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee will sit down with Michael Froman, the U.S. trade representative to discuss the Obama administration’s far-reaching trade agenda.

The hearing takes place amid the 18th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks in Malaysia, where Japan will make its debut at the negotiating table.

Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the panel, will also discuss trade issues at the Peterson Institute on Tuesday.

Finally, the House Oversight Committee will discuss on Wednesday how to push forward with efforts to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service. 

 Erik Wasson contributed.