Scheduling

The Senate meets at 2 p.m., and at 5 p.m. it will start debate on two district court judges.

Votes on the two judges — Gary Taranto for the Federal Circuit and Andrew Gordon for the District Nevada — are expected at 5:30 p.m.

It's now the Senate's turn to pass a spending bill for the rest of fiscal year 2013.

The House approved its version of the bill this week, which many Democrats opposed because it locks in the $85 billion sequester. Senate Democrats will try to include language giving the Obama administration more flexibility to implement the sequester, by letting federal agencies shift money between programs.

Reid frequently warns the Senate of possible Saturday votes, but rarely follows through.

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibustered the nomination of John Brennan to be the next CIA director for nearly 13 hours. During that time, he repeatedly called on the Obama administration to say it would not use drones against Americans on U.S. soil.

On Thursday, the Senate will pick up from where Paul left off at 12:39 a.m.

Reid is asking Republicans to agree to an up-or-down vote for Brennan that would be subject to a 60-vote margin.

The House will pass a 2013 spending bill on Wednesday, and then leave town before tons of snow turn Washington into giant shovel-ready project.

The House meets at 10 a.m., and will immediately start work on H.R. 933, a bill funding discretionary government programs for the rest of 2013.

The House starts at 10 a.m., and at noon it will consider two suspension bills. They are:

H.R. 668, requiring presidential budgets to include estimates of the cost of the deficit per taxpayer, and,

"March fourth" is the only day of the year that is a command to go forward. But Congress is ignoring that and doing very little today.

The House will meet at noon for speeches, and then later in the afternoon will work on one bill, H.R. 307. That bill would reauthorize several programs meant to protect the United States from biohazards.

Fresh from their failure to reach a deal on the sequester, Congress returns to take up another big-ticket item, a spending bill for the rest of 2013.

Under the current continuing resolution, the government is funded through March 27, which means Congress has less than a month to figure out a spending plan.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will markup gun-control bills next Thursday.

One of the bills is Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) S. 150, which would reinstate the assault weapons ban.