Bernanke to testify in the House, Senate next week

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke will give his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress next week, giving members of the House and Senate a chance to probe Bernanke for clues about the economy after a series of weaker than expected employment reports.

One question on the minds of many will be what additional steps the Fed might take if the economy remains weak, although some Republicans are likely to argue that the Fed should do no more.

Bernanke's testimony comes as the House seems to be planning a vote on legislation from Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) that would require a detailed audit of the Fed, including an audit of the Fed's monetary policy moves.

Bernanke will testify in the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, and in the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

These hearings will easily be the most scrutinized next week, although the House will hold several others on issues ranging from reforming the Medicare physician payment system, keeping terrorists out of U.S. flight training programs and tax reform.

Details on these and other key House hearings follow:

House Education and the Workforce

Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training

July 18, "Keeping College Within Reach: Exploring State Efforts to Curb Costs"
10 a.m., 2175 Rayburn House Office Building

House Energy and Commerce

Subcommittee on Health

July 18, "Using Innovation to Reform Medicare Physician Payment"
10 a.m., 2322 Rayburn House Office Building

House Financial Services

July 18, "Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy," Federal Reserve Board of Governors Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies
10 a.m., 2128 Rayburn House Office Building

House Foreign Affairs

July 19, "Unfair Trading Practices Against the U.S.: Intellectual Property Rights Infringement, Property Expropriations, and other Barriers"
10 a.m., 2172 Rayburn House Office Building

House Homeland Security

Subcommittee on Transportation Security

July 18, "A Decade After 9/11: Could American Flight Schools Still Unknowingly Be Training Terrorists?"
10 a.m., 311 Cannon House Office Building

House Judiciary

July 19, "Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security"
10 a.m., 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

House Natural Resources

July 19, "Status of Obama Administration's Rewrite of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule and Compliance with Committee Subpoenas"
10 a.m., 1324 Longworth House Office Building

House Oversight and Government Reform

July 19, "Continuing Oversight of Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation: Job Creators Still Buried by Red Tape"
9:30 a.m., 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

House Science, Space and Technology

July 19, "Keeping America Secure: The Science Supporting the Development of Threat Detection Technologies"
10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn House Office Building

House Ways and Means

July 19, "Tax Reform and the U.S. Manufacturing Sector"
9:30 a.m., 1100 Longworth House Office Building

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