This Week on Capitol Hill

Home is where the FHA mortgage is: Reworking a massive homeowner rescue bill to include a lifeline for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac turned out to be too much for Congress to pull off in one week. Now it looks like two weeks will do the trick. For months Congress had a real estate booster bill in the works that would cover refinanced mortgages for up to 400,000 homeowners caught in risky loan lurches. At the same time it had plans to stiffen oversight of Fannie and Freddie, the two "quasi" governmental agencies that back nearly half of the nation's mortgages but which - long before their July tumble - were thought to be on shaky ground.

Now lawmakers will toss in a safety net for Frannie and Freddie, giving the US Treasury the okay to extend unlimited loans to - and possibly investments in - the two giant mortgage-backers. The idea is that by building financial faith in Fannie and Freddie, Congress won't need to make good on its promised backing, but some lawmakers are unconvinced; those may try to limit the potential burden to tax payers when the bill goes up for a vote.

• get the background on the housing crisis and DC's response - and on Freddie & Fannie
• see the latest on Fannie and Freddie from the Washington Post and NY Times
• see the bill, HR 3221

Gas and Mirrors: In an ongoing effort to feel the pain of the American driver, the House and Senate continue to juggle measures designed to whittle down gas prices. This week senators could accomplish what the House failed at twice - passing a "use it or lose it" bill that would nudge oil companies to drill on leases they're already sitting on. Republicans may try to tag on a bill to open up offshore drilling, normally a nonstarter with Dems, but which is now a policy gaining popularity. House leaders, meanwhile, could vote to siphon off some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Finally - on the one solution with bipartisan support - both chambers may vote to give federal regulators a handle on energy speculators, who are thought by some economists to be inflating the price of oil.

• see more on energy legislation in Congress this year and on the gas price debate

The House may get around to a $1 billion bridge infrastructure bill, HR 3999, which was on its roster last week while it also votes onHR 5501, okaying $50 billion in spending over the next five years to combat AIDS, TB and malaria around the world, which the Senate passed last week.

If you want to let your Congressfolk know where you stand on any of the issues above, you can email them through Congress.org, because...

Hey, it's your democracy too.

- teamJoe

Next update: July 28