Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said on Monday that she hopes the Senate can approve language this week to repeal the controversial IRS reporting language in last year's healthcare bill. But Senate passage might only end up adding to the confusion over how so-called "1099 repeal" will finally happen, as the House and Senate keep passing different versions.

The 1099 language in the healthcare bill requires companies and other entities to report goods and services transactions valued at $600 or more to the IRS, and both parties have said they want to eliminate this requirement. Landrieu said Monday that the 1099 language from Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) could be approved either as an amendment to a small business bill, S. 493, or as a stand-alone measure.

"There's fairly across the board support on both sides of the aisle for that repeal, and I hope that we can get that done sometime this week as well, either specifically attached to this bill, or parallel to this effort," she said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Monday asked her colleagues to withdraw some of the 89 amendments that have been filed to the small-business bill.

Landrieu said she hopes the Senate can approve the bill this week, but she faces a challenge given the dozens of amendments that have been filed. Many have little, if anything, to do with the underlying bill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday said he expects President Obama to fully explain U.S. military operations in Libya tonight and warned that the use of U.S. air support for Libyan rebels would require congressional consideration.

"If U.S. military forces were to have responsibility for close air support or execute additional strike missions in support of opposition forces, then that of course would exceed the president's definition of a limited, supporting role," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "Such a mission would last indefinitely, and would trigger congressional consideration of our larger role in the war."

“Infighting” in the Republican party is holding up a budget deal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a Monday floor speech.

“Infighting between the Tea Party and the rest of the Republican party including Republican leadership is keeping our negotiating partner from the negotiation table,” said Reid. “Republicans need to resolve their own deep disagreements before we can find middle ground between the two parties.”

The Senate must work through amendments that are unrelated to the Small Business Administration bill it is considering.

The White House and Senate Democrats are expected to propose an additional $20 billion in cuts from FY 2011 spending, which would become the basis of new talks on how to settle the FY 2011 budget.

Congress has another two weeks to sort out the budget, if it can. No floor time has been scheduled this week for a bill, but both the House and Senate will have to pass something by next week, before current funding expires after April 8. Our colleague Erik Wasson has the details this morning.

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) said on Monday that drivers should blame the Obama administration for rising gas prices that he says could top $5 a gallon this summer.

"Just remember when you can't fill your tank at a gas station in June because the $50 limit on your debit card only buys you 9.7 gallons, you can lay it all at the feet of the president and the eco-radicals he supports, who have become a significant threat to our freedom and prosperity," Campbell wrote in his Monday "laptop report."

The House and Senate return next week facing the old question of how to reach a FY 2011 budget deal, but also the new question of how to assess sudden U.S. military involvement in Libya.

On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will try to gain clarity on Libya by quizzing Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg (not Secretary Hillary Clinton, as Republicans were hoping).

But lingering budget questions are expected to permeate the week, as the House and Senate have just two weeks to reach a final deal or be forced again into another short-term extension.

House Republicans’ long-term spending bill is a “vendetta” against the middle class and Planned Parenthood, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) charged this week.

"I believe that the H.R. 1 is a budget that in many ways is a political vendetta — when you zero out Planned Parenthood, when you go after the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], when you go after the middle class like they do,” said Boxer. 

“It is a vendetta against the middle class, the working poor,” said Boxer. “There is no way that has to be done."