TheWeekInCongress (May 7-11, 2007)

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It was an eventful week on Capitol Hill, as both the House and Senate tackled several high-profile issues. The House passed another Iraq War supplemental spending bill, while the Senate considered bills relating to both the FDA and the Army Corps of Engineers. For an in-depth look at the legislation considered in Congress since Monday, we again turn to Robert McElroy’s TheWeekInCongress. His site is a great resource for citizens wishing to keep track of what their members are up to in Washington, and we urge you to check it out. Follow the headlines below to the Congresspedia articles covering the respective issues, which in turn link to and heavily rely on McElroy’s analyses.

• The House passed a bill which would fund the Iraq War through July of this year, at which point the chamber would consider further spending (to last through September) based on Iraq's ability to meet certain benchmarks.
• The Senate passed a bill aimed primarily at charging pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers more for product testing, and then using these funds to improve safety-testing of prescription drugs and other oversight.
• The House passed a measure which would prohibit student loan companies from offering perks and financial incentives to universities in order to increase business.
• The Senate invoked cloture on a $13 billion bill, previously passed by the House, which would authorize water-related projects to be carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers.
• The House passed an appropriations measure which contained many of the domestic spending items (such as relief for farmers) originally included in the Iraq supplemental spending bill vetoed by President Bush last week.