• Minimum Wage Bill Debate Continues this week in the Senate
  The Senate debated the House-passed legislation raising the federal minimum wage. The Chamber opposes the House bill. The House passed legislation does not include tax benefits. The Senate bill is expected to include an $8 billion small business tax package.
  
  Subsequently, the Senate failed 54 to 43 (60 votes were needed) to invoke cloture and restrict debate on legislation to raise the federal minimum wage over the next 26 months. A cloture vote also failed (49 to 48) on the Gregg amendment to give the President line-item veto authority.
  
  The Senate, furthermore, killed all but one GOP amendment to the minimum wage bill. The Sessions amendment that passed unanimously would bar companies from federal contracts if they hire illegal immigrants. The Senate next week is expected to approve a substitute amendment that will combine the bill's main provision, raising the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over 26 months, with an $8.3 billion small business tax package. The Chamber opposes both the House-passed "clean" bill that will permanently raise the minimum wage and the proposed Senate substitute that is expected to contain the temporary tax breaks package.
  
  
• House considered a bill that would strip pension benefits from members who are convicted of crimes in connection with their official duties. Former GOP Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for making false statements and conspiracy to commit fraud as part of the Abramoff lobbying scandal.

The President's State of the Union Address to the 110th Congress
The State of the Union Address contained a series of new and retooled proposals on such key issues as health care, energy, climate change, education, and immigration reform. Analysts say they may be quickly submerged in the growing Congressional backlash against his unpopular Iraq war plan. The latest ABC News-Washington Post poll results show for the first time a majority (51%) of respondents express "strong opposition" to the President's overall performance.

Federal Budget Deficits Falling
The Congressional Budget Office reported that the federal budget deficit is theoretically on track to fall to $172 billion in FY-2007 and be in surplus by 2012. But CBO says that this technically-correct estimate makes a number of unrealistic assumptions such as no further alternative minimum tax relief, the expiration of all of President Bush's tax cuts in 2010 and no additional Iraq War costs beyond the $70 billion approved so far by Congress. A more realistic estimate shows the deficit dropping to $200 billion in FY-2007 but growing to roughly $300 billion in FY-2012.