Scheduling

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) signaled Monday that the Senate would soon turn to a controversial piece of legislation to do away with billions of dollars in tax breaks for large oil producers and increase breaks for clean-energy producers.

As Reid welcomed Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) to the Senate Monday afternoon. he noted the upper chamber would soon have opportunities to "make tough choices" and referred to the upcoming energy legislation.

The Senate returns at 2 p.m. Monday, and in the late afternoon (5:30 p.m.) expects to hold a cloture vote on the nomination of James Michael Cole to be deputy attorney general.

The Senate has little else on tap for this slow Monday, and the House is not in session.

Congress has long felt Americans' pain at the pump, and next week plans to take up legislative proposals that members hope will lower gasoline prices, or at least signal to energy markets that relief is coming.

The House will take up two bills that attack what Republicans believe is the cause of higher gas prices: the Obama administration's resistance to expanding U.S. oil and gas supplies. The two bills would end what Republicans say is a de facto moratorium on offshore drilling, and establish a more predictable framework for considering Gulf of Mexico drilling permits, including a limit on the time the government can take to accept or reject a permit.

The Senate returns next week to a busy hearing schedule, including a series of hearings in the Senate Banking Committee to review the financial crisis and review the Wall Street reform bill. The latter hearing on Thursday will feature testimony from top-line financial regulators, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin and several others.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on new oil-and-gas technologies, as Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over how to lower the price of oil and gas. The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday holds its own hearing on rising energy prices.

A key committee meeting in the House next week will be held by the House Armed Services Committee on May 11, when it holds a markup of the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.

House Foreign Affairs holds two meetings next week, one to examine U.S. export control policy, and another assessing the Peace Corps after 50 years.

Closer to home, the House Education and the Workforce Committee examines "federal overreach into school meals."

The House convenes at 9 a.m. Thursday to begin work on two bills that Republicans believe will help increase U.S. oil exploration.

The House will take up a rule governing debate on H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1230. H.R. 1229, called the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, would require the Department of the Interior to act on Gulf drilling permit applications.

The House returns for morning speeches at 10 a.m. Wednesday, then starts legislative work at noon on two bills.

The House takes up H.R. 3, which would make permanent a ban on the use of federal funds for abortion.

And the House will seek to complete work on H.R. 1214, which would end a $100 million program that offers federal funds for the construction of school-based health facilities. Two amendments to this bill were debated last night.

The House convenes at 10 a.m. Tuesday for morning speeches, then begins consideration of two bills at noon that would repeal two parts of last year's healthcare law.

H.R. 1213 would repeal federal funding to states for the purpose of setting up health insurance exchanges. The bill would save an estimated $14 billion over 10 years.

The House Rules Committee made five amendments in order, which will each be given 10 minutes of debate today. One from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to post a public notice saying the funds were rescinded — these sorts of amendments from Democrats have been successfully included in recent legislation.

House Republicans on Monday will have ample opportunity to thank President George W. Bush for starting the work of tracking down Osama bin Laden nearly 10 years ago, a job President Obama finished Sunday night by announcing that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan.

Sometime after 2 p.m., Republicans will call up a non-controversial bill naming a courthouse in Midland, Texas, after Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush. Republicans had already planned to take the bill up last week, before President Obama's Sunday announcement that bin Laden had been killed.

After finally resolving the FY 2011 budget crisis in mid-April, Congress returns next week to face another budget crisis, of sorts.

Unlike more recent crises, the government does not face a risk of shutdown next week. However, Congress is just weeks away from a controversial vote to raise the debt ceiling, and some House Republicans insist that they could only support an increase if it's tied to entitlement spending reform.