This week: Baucus starts his journey to China

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will take the first step toward a new career as an international diplomat Tuesday when senators start work on his nomination for ambassador to China.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, who has led dozens of confirmation hearings over the years, will sit on the other side of dais to discuss his nomination with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senators have given no sign they plan to hold up Baucus’s nomination, and are expected to confirm him swiftly.

Baucus, meanwhile, is hoping to complete some committee business — approving trade promotion authority legislation — before heading to Beijing. His new gig also casts doubt on the chances of passing comprehensive tax reform this year, which had already been seen as a tall task.

Baucus’s nomination is just one event in a busy week in Washington that includes President Obama’s State of the Union address. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will renew his push on a measure that would restore federal unemployment benefits to more than 1.3 million workers who have been unemployed for at least six months.

Senate Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement on a bill before heading out of town for the weeklong break.

House Republicans will be huddling in the second half of the week for their annual private retreat. There, Republicans will be looking to nail down a strategy for tackling the debt limit, which must be raised by the end of February to avoid a default.

Farm bill negotiators have been trying to complete the $1 trillion measure, with an eye toward releasing it by Monday night for a Wednesday House vote. But they first must resolve some lingering issues so that conferees can sign the bill without holding a full conference meeting. Remaining issues have included dairy subsidies, payment limits and meat labeling.

Off Capitol Hill, the Federal Reserve will huddle for another policy-setting meeting.

The central bank has said it would like to continue trimming the size of its bond purchases as it tries to roll back that economic safety net. But a disappointing December jobs report has some wondering if the Fed will hit the brakes on those plans.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is not scheduled to deliver a press conference after the meeting, which will be the last he oversees as Fed chairman.

Meanwhile, Obama’s annual speech before Congress is likely to tap into a number of economic themes. Democrats have indicated that their battle against economic inequality will be a major theme for the midterm elections, and Obama is expected to focus on that issue in his speech.

Sticking with the inequality theme, the president could also focus some of his remarks on credit access for Americans looking to buy a home.

Hours before the president’s speech, the House Budget Committee aims to cover similar ground. That panel will spend the day discussing the war on poverty, which is now entering its 50th year.

On Tuesday, the House Financial Services Committee will hear from the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Tuesday. Agency head Richard Cordray will update lawmakers on what his watchdog has been up to, and Republicans will likely continue to press him on their list of concerns about the agency.

That same day, the House Ways and Means Committee will be scrutinizing ObamaCare. The panel will hold a hearing devoted to how the law that sets which employees must receive healthcare coverage could affect the availability of jobs nationwide.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss the oversight and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. Fred Hochberg, president of that bank, will be on hand to testify.

And the ongoing effort to shore up the Postal Service’s finances will continue on Wednesday. On that day, the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs is set to debate postal reform legislation.

—Vicki Needham and Erik Wasson contributed.