Obama expected to talk oil, GSA lavish spending the focus on Capitol Hill again, plus more to watch for Tuesday in politics

Phil Pruitt

There's a lot happening around Washington on Tuesday. Time will tell what turns out to be substantive action and what turns out to be noise.

Gasoline prices continue to be a hot political issue, and President Obama is expected to unveil a plan Tuesday aimed a strengthening federal supervision of oil markets. The White House proposal, according to the Associated Press, would increase penalties for market manipulation and empower regulators to increase the amount of money energy traders are required to put behind their transactions.

Immediate impact at the pump? Unclear.

Immediate reaction from Republicans? Likely to be some version of the word non-starter.

The General Services Administration's spending habits will be a topic again Tuesday on Capitol Hill. On Monday, it was the House Oversight Committee that drilled into the spending. Tuesday, it's the House Infrastructure subcommittee. At issue: A lavish, three-day employee conference in 2010 that ended up with a tax-dollar price tag of $830,000. There were a lot of apologies and some pleading the Fifth Amendment by witnesses at Monday's hearing.

Elsewhere in Washington, the Citizens Against Government Waste will release this year's edition of the Congressional Pig Book, and the Brady Campaign will hold a press conference urging Congress to "keep guns from dangerous people."

And don't be surprised if there are more developments Tuesday in the Secret Service scandal. On Monday, it was learned the Secret Service has stripped the 11 agents tied to a prostitution scandal in Colombia of their "Top Secret" clearances and taken away their badges and guns.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney will be campaigning in Pennsylvania, and so will Newt Gingrich. Ann Romney will attend a fundraiser at Trump Tower in New York City, and Callista Gingrich will be campaigning in Rhode Island.

First lady Michelle Obama will be busy, too. She has a fundraiser in Tennessee, and a DNC event in Pittsburgh, and Vice President Biden will attend a fundraiser in Washington.

And then there is this: President Obama welcomes NASCAR Sprint Series drivers to the White House. It is unknown whether he has friends who are NASCAR team owners like Romney says he has.

And this: The Internal Revenue Service will be the focus of a lot of bad thoughts by a lot of people Tuesday. It's tax filing day.

Sources: Yahoo! News Reporter Rachel Rose Hartman, Yahoo! News White House Correspondent Olivier Knox, Associated Press.

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