The House’s passage of the Administration’s healthcare reform legislation on March 21 leaves a vacuum in Washington that will be filled starting March 22 with the beginning of markups on Senator Chris Dodd’s financial service reform legislation in the Senate Banking Committee. Treasury Secretary Geithner addresses reform in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on March 22d as well.

Later in the week, Geithner is expected to testify before Barney Frank’s House Financial Services Committee on housing; the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Hearings conducts a hearing on credit scores on Wednesday, March 25. The full committee welcomes Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a hearing on unwinding the Fed’s emergency liquidity programs.

This week brings multiple government reports on housing and the economy. On March 23, February existing-home sales data are released, while the report on February new-home sales is released on March 24.

At the end of the week, on Friday, March 26, comes the third estimate on GDP for the fourth quarter of 2009 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, along with corporate profits for that same quarter. Finally on that day as well comes the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence index.