All eyes are on the House to see what they’ll do. Eric Cantor has been hammered in recent weeks for his comments about disaster relief funding needing offsets. Democrats in Congress and the White House are clearly determined to call his bluff. Cantor has moderated his tone on this of late, no doubt in part because of the multiple House Republican freshmen whose districts where affected by Hurricane Irene. Let’s see if they allow a clean bill to come to the House floor.

I think Republicans are showing themselves sensitive to criticism over hostage-taking, at least in the short term. It did damage to their party in the debt limit debate, and they’re wary of jumping into another fight of a similar ilk. The next hurdles to clear will be 2012 appropriations and surface transportation funding, both of which expire September 30.

The White House estimates that Hurricane Irene caused $1.5 billion in damages, virtually assuring that they will have to ask for a disaster relief supplemental sometime in the next couple months.

In a speech in Detroit tailored to the union audience, President Obama paid respect to the need for a strong American labor movement as a lever to move families into the middle class. He also previewed his jobs address coming on Thursday to a joint session of Congress, highlighting steps like “rebuilding roads and bridges,” which could put 1 million unemployed construction workers back on the job.

The White House has requested $5.2 billion in disaster relief funds, a number that does not include damages caused by Hurricane Irene last week. Because of a provision tucked into the debt limit deal, Congress can go beyond the self-imposed spending cap by up to $11 billion for disaster relief, without offsets. So far, they have requested the $5.2 billion.