Congressional Calendar September 16, 2010

A group of Republican Senators led by Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will call for the adoption of a freeze on non-defense discretionary spending at a 1:00 p.m. ET press conference. The so-called Sessions-McCaskill spending freeze would apply to Congress' yearly spending bills and would significantly reduce the spending outlined in the president's budget proposal.

In other economic news, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner delivers a report to the Senate Banking Committee on international economic and exchange rate policies at 10:00 a.m. ET. Geithner talks to the House Ways and Means Committee in the afternoon about China's exchange rate policy. Critics say that the Communist regime keeps its exchange rate artificially low to send cheap exports to global markets. The Chinese government has said that they will allow their currency to rise gradually.

National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins testifies before a 10:00 a.m ET Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the future of human embryonic stem cell research. A recent federal court ruling blocked continued federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, but a movement is underway on Capitol Hill to pass legislation to undercut that decision.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, hold their end of the week press conferences. Boehner kicks off the action at 10:30 a.m. ET; Pelosi follows at 12:30 p.m. ET.

President Obama's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, undergoes a two-step confirmation hearing process Thursday. In the morning he'll testify before the Senate Budget Committee, followed by an afternoon before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Lew, who has the support of GOP budget guru Sen Judd Gregg, is expected to be confirmed without incident.

As we near the end of the legislative week, there's bound to be more to cover so stay with Fox News for the latest.