Today on the Hill

The Senate is still in pro forma session, but the House of Representatives came back to session yesterday as the Armed Services Committee held a hearing on "Business Challenges within the Defense industry" and the Rules Committee held a hearing on a resolution to express opposition to the President's request to increase the debt ceiling. The full House also took a quorum call and voted on a new Sergeant At Arms for the House which, as expected, was fairly uneventful.

As far as action on the floor of the House today, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. First votes expected: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. You can probably expect a fair amount of attention to be given to the vote for the resolution expressing opposition to raising the debt ceiling because many Republican members are gearing up to use this as an opportunity to show their opposition to Obama's policy. There's going to be about two hours of debate on the resolution, so I imagine this could produce a few newsworthy clips if the right members head to the floor.

There will also be three committee's in action tomorrow and Eric Cantor's office has highlighted the markup of H.R. 1173 as the "committee activity of the day." It shouldn't be too surprising that Cantor highlighted this hearing because H.R. 1173 repeals a part of President Barack Obama’s health care reform effort called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program.

I won't be watching that markup, however, because I'll be covering the Financial Services Committee hearing on the Volcker Rule. This is important because the Volcker Rule's a provision in Dodd-Frank that prohibits banks from taking part in certain kinds of speculative trading that don't serve the needs of customers. In other words, it prevents some of the behavior that led to the recent banking meltdown. Despite the fact that financial analysts believe this is a step in the right direction, Republicans have been against this measure since before they even gained a majority in the House.

You can see the full schedule of committee hearings below "the fold."

FINANCIAL SERVICES----------------------------------------------------------------9:30-Open

Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subc. and Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subc. Joint hrng. on examining the impact of the Volcker Rule, a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which prohibits banks from investing in hedge funds and private equity funds. Dept. and public witnesses. 2128 RHOB.

SELECT INTELLIGENCE-------------------------------------------------------------1:00-Open

Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis, and Counterintelligence Subc. On the role of the Department of Homeland Security in the Intelligence Community. Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 340 CHOB.

WAYS & MEANS----------------------------------------------------------------------10:00-Open

Full Committee. Markup of H.R. 1173 – Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act. 1100 LHOB.