This week: Dimon comes to Capitol Hill

The House is out of session this week, but the Senate has a number of big items lined up.

The Senate Banking Committee will demand much of the spotlight this week, as it will spend Wednesday pressing the head of the nation’s largest bank on how his firm managed to lose billions on a bad trade.

After two hearings with financial regulators, lawmakers are now ready to hear from JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon. 

The vocal critic of the financial reform law will now have to answer to probing questions about how, under his watch, the bank’s London investment arm ended up in a deal that has cost the bank $3 billion and counting. Although the losses will not sink the bank or require a taxpayer bailout, the catastrophe is sufficiently reminiscent of the 2008 financial meltdown to ignite a new round of debate in Congress on how Wall Street should be regulated.

The farm bill will dominate the Senate floor this week, but with more than 80 amendments filed, passage by the end of next week seems unlikely. Amendments range from the non-germane, such as cutting off aid to Pakistan and permanently ending the estate tax, to limits on crop insurance premium subsidies for wealthy farmers and limits on food stamps for immigrants.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) are trying to pare down the list. Stabenow has said she will back parliamentary moves like filling the amendment tree and a cloture vote if too many non-germane amendments crop up. The five-year farm bill needs to be enacted by Sept. 30 or an extension of the existing 2008 measure will be needed to stop farm programs from reverting to 1949 policies.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will deliver a keynote address before the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday. The Senate’s top tax writer will lay out his vision for tax reform as Congress continues to discuss the need to overhaul the tax code following this fall’s elections. Baucus has kept his cards relatively close to the vest on tax reform, and Monday’s could shine a light on his thinking.

His committee has a pair of hearings slated for this week; it will spend Tuesday talking about how tax reform would affect the nation’s energy policy, and Thursday on how physicians are paid through Medicare.

Senate appropriators will continue their work this week. 

On Tuesday, a subcommittee will mark up a 2013 spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. That same day, another subcommittee is set to take up the 2013 financial services and general government spending package. A Wednesday hearing is slated at the committee to discuss the Defense Department’s spending needs in fiscal 2013.

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