Notable House and Senate Hearings for the week of March 22-26, 2010:

Banking and Finance

Monday, March 22 at 5 PM the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will hold a markup session to consider and pass on a bill by Chairman Christopher Dodd called the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The bill, which is so new that it does not yet appear in the official Library of Congress database, would change the structure by which banks, credit card lenders, hedge funds and other investment schemes are regulated, and would create an addition government bureau to promulgate reports and instigate further regulatory changes.

Wednesday, March 24 at 10 AM the House Committee on Financial Services will consider H.R. 4868, the Housing Preservation and Tenant Protection Act of 2010. This mammoth bill tackles the issue of dwindling public housing units, the continuation of Section 8 and other federal housing assistance programs, and the practice of long-term tenants losing their leases.

Wednesday, March 24 at 2 PM the House Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing regarding the maintenance of credit score databases and their impact on Americans’ ability to borrow money.

Government Transparency and Accountability

On Tuesday, March 22, at 2:30 pm, the Senate lists its Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as being scheduled for a hearing “to examine making the government more transparent and accountable.” Among those scheduled to testify are National Archives and Records Administration archivist David Ferriero and Sunlight Foundation executive director Ellen Miller.

On Thursday, March 25 at 10:00 AM, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider a number of bills, among them S. 3111, the Faster FOIA Act. Written in the wake of revelations that under President Barack Obama, more Freedom of Information Act requests are being denied than under George W. Bush, the Faster FOIA Act would establish a 16-member commission to hold a series of meetings and deliberations designed to identify a set of standards to be suggested to other government bodies to increase government openness to its own citizens.

Homeland Insecurity

On Monday March 23 at 9:30 AM the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to call Attorney General Eric Holder to testify at a hearing with the stated purpose of “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice.” Watch to see what form this “oversight” does and does not take. Will the hearing focus on constitutional issues such as data mining, surveillance, and the fabrication of fictitious terrorist plots by the FBI? Will the hearing focus on procedural matters, such as the timeliness of reports to the committee? Or will the hearing focus on personal matters, such as level of courtesy shown by the Attorney General to committee members in days past?

International Relations

On Wednesday, March 24 at 3 PM, the House Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing to review U.S. policy toward the countries of Africa.

Space

On Wednesday, March 24 at 2 PM the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing regarding changes to NASA’s plan for exploration of space.

War and Peace

Did Terminator unnerve you? On Tuesday, March 23 at 2 PM, the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform will hold a hearing entitled “Rise of the Drones: Unmanned Systems and the Future of War.” Send your unmanned hovercraft to observe, or simply watch the proceedings by webcast.

Speaking of government oversight and transparency, to find out about any of these upcoming committee meetings in the House you’d unfortunately have to dig down three or more layers through dozens of sub-pages of the House of Representatives website; the House website officially purporting to list committee hearings for the week lists only a bare two: one committee hearing on auto parts and a second committee hearing on summer jobs. The consent of the governed cannot be obtained without our knowledge.