This Week on Capitol Hill

Save Our Economy: Congress is heck-bent on passing a final history-making stimulus bill this week, hoping to meet a self-imposed mid-February deadline. Lawmakers' first hurdle - Senate passage of that chamber's $820 billion package - looks set to be cleared on Tuesday. The hard slog will come later as the two chambers knock out a compromise that bridges the differences between the two versions of their bills. Partly to win over a handful of Republicans (needed to avoid a filibuster), senators added in tax cuts to boost house and car sales while trimming over $80 billion in House spending initiatives, with education and health taking the biggest hits. It's anyone's guess how far each chamber will budge in each other's direction - and how far into their President's Day break lawmakers will stick around - to get the job done.

• get more details on the House and Senate stimulus plans

For a glimpse of what else is coming down the pike, see cJ's rolling tally of congressional items in Outlook '09

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: February 23, 2009.