Hearings

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will testify Wednesday before the Senate Banking Committee in a hearing titled, "A Breakdown in Risk Management: What Went Wrong at JPMorgan Chase?"

The global financial services firm has spent the last few weeks answering questions about trades that resulted in a loss of $2 billion, news that prompted Democrats in particular to argue that this failure is just the latest reason to support the increased oversight of financial services companies in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

House Democrats said on Wednesday a Republican bill that could lead to penalties against healthcare providers who perform sex-selection abortions is an unacceptable infringement of women's right to choose abortion.

The GOP bill put Democrats in a somewhat difficult position during Wednesday floor debate, as it prompted one to clarify that Democrats oppose sex-selection abortion. But while no Democrat took the floor to argue in favor of these abortions, several implied that trying to enforce rules against this practice is not worth it given that the limitations it would impose on women.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Greg Jaczko, who announced this week he would resign as soon as the Obama administration finds a replacement, will face an oversight hearing next week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The subcommittee on Environment and the Economy will hold a hearing Thursday on "NRC Policy and Governance Oversight." Jaczko and the four other NRC commissioners will testify.

The Senate Finance Committee next Thursday will hold a hearing to discuss whether the Social Security Administration is doing all it can to save taxpayer dollars and will hear from SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue.

That's one of just a handful of full committee hearings in the Senate next week, which include a discussion on proposed clean energy standards and reform to the healthcare delivery system. The Senate Commerce Committee will also hold an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission.

The House returns next week to a light hearing schedule at the full committee level, and will discuss Iran sanctions, U.S. trade strategy and financial regulators.

The House Judiciary Committee will also meet Wednesday to discuss implementation of the "America Invents Act," otherwise known as the patent reform bill that passed last year.

A Senate subcommittee will meet Monday in Ohio to examine a state voting law that Democrats say could make it more difficult to vote.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will preside over this hearing, the third over the last several months to press the issue of how state laws might make it difficult for minorities, students, the elderly and others to vote.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will preside over a Senate subcommittee field hearing Monday that explores the extent to which state voting laws make it more difficult to vote, and he will focus on a new Ohio law, HB 194.

It is one of several state laws that Durbin and other Democrats say restrict the right to vote. He said that law hampers early voting by reducing the number of early voting days from 35 to 17 and makes it harder to vote absentee.

Senate committees next week will take up MF Global and tax reform, among other issues.

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will meet Tuesday to see if there are any "lessons learned" from the MF Global collapse. And on Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee will discuss how tax reform might affect state and local tax policy.

The Senate has a light hearing schedule next week, punctuated by a Wednesday hearing at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on oversight of the General Services Administration (GSA).

GSA has been ravaged by both parties over the Easter break after the agency's inspector general released a report saying GSA spent more than $800,000 in a 2010 Las Vegas conference, and spent thousands of dollars on excessive gifts for its employees.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will testify next week at the House Appropriations Committee on the security situation in Syria, just as Syria's government agreed to a cease-fire that was holding as of Friday.

Obama administration officials welcomed the cease-fire, but said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had yet to leave population centers in Syria. The administration has pushed for Assad's resignation in a bid to stop the government's violent actions against Syrian civilians who have protested against the president.