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In a busy news week, with Japanese radiation, Libyan fighting and Gulf States’ protests dominating the headlines, new factual information delivered during hearings on Capitol Hill often gets lost in the mix.

Here is a sampling from Senate and House hearings on elements of the Defense Department’s fiscal 2012 budget:

Eye on Afghanistan: Gen. David Petraeus, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that persistent surveillance of Afghanistan has sharply increased and will continue growing. “We have increased the number of various types of persistent surveillance systems — essentially blimps and towers with optics — from 114 this past August to 184 at the present, with plans for continued increases throughout this year.”

The prime system is the Aerostat, a blimp-like vehicle that is held 1,000 feet in the air by a tether, which also supplies electric power to its cameras and sensors. They are not highly pressurized so bullets won’t immediately shoot them down. They, along with systems based on towers, provide day and night monitoring of a wide area over towns and military bases.

Battling Afghan corruption: Petraeus defended President Hamid Karzai on the subject of Afghan corruption. He said Karzai’s concern with private security contractors was based on ownership “in some cases of former warlords or members of what he — and we — have agreed to call criminal patronage networks. .?.?. Again, these are criminals. They’re breaking the law. They have political protection in some respects. And they’re not just acting as individuals; they are part of networks. ”

Petraeus told the story of the firing in December of former Afghan surgeon general Ahmad Zia Yaftali and three officials from the country’s top medical facility, Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul. A U.S.-Afghan investigation discovered about $43-million worth of American-supplied drugs for military hospitals were missing, and expensive diagnostic equipment was found in private medical offices.

“When he heard the evidence on his surgeon general, for example, he fired him on the spot,” Petraeus told the senators about Karzai.

Recruiting facts: The Air Force, which has its newly established U.S. Cyber Command, is looking to recruit professionals in this discipline “who do this work on a daily basis but that are willing to serve and share their expertise with the service,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told Congress. One approach: building Air Force Reserve units in Silicon Valley in California and the Northwest, where Microsoft and other Web giants are located.

Military construction excess: A $50-million Navy fitness center and two working dog facilities — at $4.9 million and $3.5 million each — drew the attention of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services military construction subcommittee. “Those are expensive working dog facilities,” she volunteered, but never pursued them.

“I understand that fitness is a requirement of the job, and we will always need fitness centers for our military,” she said, “but at a time when our nation is facing fiscal cuts, I have trouble seeing how we can justify spending $50 million on a single fitness center and I want to examine that more fully.”

She said she thought “this must be in a very, very difficult part of the world. This must be a fitness center someplace where there is no other access to easy and affordable and accessible PT [physical training] activities.” But her interest increased when she found it was to be built at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego and is to include a $7.5?million swimming pool, a $4?million recreation center for single sailors and a close to $20?million gym facility.

“I’m anxious to hear what we’re replacing and certainly I want our men and women to have the best,” McCaskill said. “But this is the most beautiful place in the world and certainly the outdoors lends itself for exercise almost every day there.”

Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, assistant secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment, diplomatically agreed that San Diego was most beautiful and the area lends itself to being outdoors. “But,” she added, “the reason that this facility is at the price that it is, is that it will have something like 80,000 patrons.” She explained San Diego is a major hub for the Navy and Marines, and the expectation is the $50?million building “will be the central facility for that entire area.”

Coronado Naval Base lists on its Web site 12 Navy fitness centers and gyms located throughout the San Diego region, including one, the Admiral J.G. Prout Field House, that has strength and cardiovacular machines, a trained staff and “includes a 50 meter outdoor pool, jacuzzi, an indoor basketball court and locker rooms complete with sauna.”

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The battle for the presidency and the Senate in 2012 are deeply intertwined, with as many as nine states expected to be central to both contests.

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The national map shows four competitive Senate races featuring Democratic incumbents in states that have been at or near the center of the race for the presidency in the past several elections and will be so again in the next one.

In Florida, Sen. Bill Nelson is certain to face his toughest challenge since winning his seat in 2000. Sensing his vulnerability — and the importance of the state to the White House’s 2012 electoral calculus — President Obama held a fundraising event for Nelson earlier this month and Vice President Biden will do so this week.

The story is the same in Missouri, where Sen. Claire McCaskill, a strong Obama ally, is seeking a second term, and in Ohio, where Sen. Sherrod Brown is up for reelection. Both states were heavily targeted by Obama in 2008, and they will be again by both him and the eventual Republican nominee. Ditto Michigan, where a struggling economy could complicate Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s reelection bid as well as Obama’s path to victory in the state.

Should Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl retire in Wisconsin before the 2012 election, the Badger State would be added to the list of contested Senate races in states likely to decide the presidency as well.

It’s not just Democratic senators who will be running in states featuring a fight at the presidential level.

Open-seat Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia are on the radar screens of Senate and presidential strategists.

The most obvious political impact in these nine overlapping states is that it will be more difficult for incumbents (or challengers) to separate themselves from their party’s presidential nominee.

Of the nine states, Obama carried seven in 2008 — losing only Arizona and Missouri — but Republicans had considerable success in several of them in 2010.

In Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin, Republican Senate candidates won by linking their Democratic opponents to Obama and some of his less-popular policies, most notably the health-care legislation.

Senators such as Brown, McCaskill and Nelson — and maybe even Stabenow — can expect more of the same in 2012. And, although Democrats tried last year to point out that the president wasn’t the one on the ballots in their states, the senators won’t have that luxury in 2012.

On the other hand, having Obama at the top of the ticket will help to drive turnout among base voters — African Americans, Hispanics, members of labor unions — to levels that Democrats on the ballot in 2010 only dreamed about.

And, because winning in states such as Florida, Michigan and Ohio will be high priorities for Obama’s reelection race, millions of dollars will be spent on ensuring that every potential Democratic voter in each of those states is not only found but contacted — a voter outreach effort that should have considerable trickle-down effect for the party’s nominees down the ballot.

The less obvious but perhaps no less important effect of so many double-down states — politics and blackjack in the same column! — is that outside interest groups such as the conservative American Crossroads, as well as its yet-to-be-named liberal counterweight, may be able to get more bang for their buck.

For example, an ad hitting Obama in Missouri could not only do him political damage but also could reinforce the connection between the president and McCaskill — a problematic campaign narrative for her.

Viewed broadly, it’s clear that the fight for the White House and the Senate will move in tandem. Whichever party wins the majority of these nine states will almost certainly control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013.

chris.cillizza@washpost.com

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Sometimes it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day for all that members of Congress have to do: Attend committee hearings, meet with constituents, tour their districts, ride in parades and kiss babies. Not to mention raise money and win reelection.

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But the most basic function for any lawmaker is to stand up and be counted – to go to the House or Senate floor and cast votes. For the first month of the 112th Congress, members didn’t do much of that.

The House held 25 recorded votes in the first month of this session, compared with 53 in the same period in the 111th Congress and 73 at the start of the 110th Congress. The Senate had just 11 recorded votes in the first month, after having 36 two years ago and 43 four years ago.

What’s behind the precipitous drop? And are votes really a good barometer of how hard Congress is working? The answers are different for each chamber.

In the House, where the party in charge can do nearly anything it wants, the relatively small number of votes reflects a deliberate decision by Republicans to begin the year differently.

“This Congress, the calendar promotes quality over quantity, allowing time for substantive committee work in addition to votes on the floor,” said Laena Fallon, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Fallon noted that House committees and subcommittees have been busy holding hearings, including more than 30 sessions scheduled for this week.

In a December letter to colleagues explaining the schedule for this Congress, Cantor emphasized that certain kinds of votes would happen far less often: “Gone are congratulatory resolutions. Post office namings will be handled on a less frequent basis.” Cantor added that the schedule would include at least one week of recess every month so “members could return home to listen to their constituents on a regular basis,” as they did last week.

The House further pared back its vote calendar for a few days in mid-January after the shootings in Tucson that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

But the House calendar also represents a choice on the part of GOP leaders to retain a relatively narrow focus in the first weeks of the session – at least compared to the last time Republicans took control of the chamber: After Republicans captured control of Congress in the 1994 election, the House held 90 recorded votes during the first month of the 104th Congress.

That flurry of activity in 1995 came as Republicans sought to keep the promises they made in the “Contract With America,” and the House voted in the first 100 days of the session on a host of ambitious bills. Similarly, in 2007 the new Democratic majority passed a half-dozen key bills in the first 100 hours of the Congress.

This year, by contrast, GOP leaders took power with a narrower list of immediate priorities, including last month’s vote to repeal President Obama’s health-reform bill and a handful of initiatives to cut government spending. Their 2010 “Pledge to America” did not include a vow to pass any bills in a certain time frame.

Overall, Republicans have been less eager to schedule floor votes than Democrats have in the past decade. While Democrats averaged 63 votes in the first month of the past two Congresses, the three GOP-controlled Congresses before that averaged just under 16 votes in the first month.

Donald Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said he had heard Republicans say this year that they would judge their own success not based on how many laws they pass, but how few. “They’ve got a different measure of what they’re going to be doing,” Wolfensberger said.

As for the Senate, the chamber had an unusually long and busy lame-duck session in December, which explains why Democratic leaders decided to spend all but one day out of session in the first three weeks of January. Senators used that time to catch up on state activities they might otherwise have done in December.

Then the two parties commenced protracted negotiations on a series of changes to Senate rules, with the result being that the chamber didn’t hold a single recorded vote until Jan. 26. Both parties emerged from those negotiations vowing to be more bipartisan.

So, unlike in the House – where Republican leaders immediately took up a health-reform repeal bill they knew Democrats would not back – Senate Democrats have deliberately pursued bills that wouldn’t split the chamber on party lines.

“A high volume of roll-call votes sometimes says more about the amount of gridlock in the Senate than it does about the level of legislative activity,” said Senate Democratic leadership spokesman Brian Fallon, adding that Democrats “will continue to look at bills that offer potential for bipartisan cooperation as opposed to ones that get bogged down.”

After allowing the GOP to have a vote on health-care repeal, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) moved on to a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill supported by both parties, allowing ample Republican amendments, and then moved on to a consensus package of judicial nominations.

“I don’t think the number of votes is really a measure of productivity,” Wolfensberger said. “In some cases, the lack of recorded votes could mean they agree on things and are doing things by voice vote.”

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The House and Senate are preparing to give themselves another three weeks to resolve their so-far intractable spending fight before heading out on recess for one of those weeks.

The new three-week extension, which cuts $6 billion from spending on current programs, is set to be on the House floor Tuesday and then win approval in the Senate and be signed by President Obama before the current two-week measure expires Friday.

But there is a growing sentiment in Congress that lawmakers cannot keep funding the government in fits and starts and that the two sides must work out a deal  to keep the government open through Sept. 30 before the new bill expires April 8.

Still, Republicans and Democrats remain tens of billions of dollars apart on how deeply to cut, with Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, urging caution during an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We cannot solve this problem in six months,” Mr. Durbin said of mounting budget deficits. “We have to look at it in the medium and long term for the good of this nation and for our financial reputation in the world.”

Republicans said they intended to see the temporary measure win passage but continued to hit President Obama for not playing more of a leading role in the spending negotiations.

“He enlisted the vice president to be the negotiator,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 House Republican, said on CNN. “They came in for one meeting, then the vice president left the country and we’re only funded for two weeks. How serious are they about solving this problem?”

President Obama is scheduled to leave at the end of the week for a trip to South America, limiting his direct participation in any talks but Congress will be gone at the same time.

The temporary funding bill would bring to $10 billion the amount of cuts that lawmakers have enacted in recent weeks as they have pushed stop-gap measures as a way to avoid a government shutdown. But both Democrats and Republicans say they have to get beyond the short-term budgeting, which could cause bookkeeping problems and other difficulties for federal agencies.

While they continue to bicker over the broad level of cuts, there is one line-item that House Republicans seem intent on taking on by itself. With National Public Radio in the middle of controversy, the leadership plans to bring a measure to the floor this week going after funding for N.P.R., a long-time target of conservative Republicans.

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Representative Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, said on Tuesday that he will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator John Ensign next year.

Mr. Ensign, a Republican, announced he would not run for reelection after being dogged by a sex scandal involving an affair he had with a staffer. Mr. Heller, a former secretary of state, made his intentions clear in an e-mail message to supporters.

“Barack Obama and his beltway allies are proposing record spending that will add to America’s job-killing debt from a stratospheric $14 trillion to a staggering $20 trillion,” he wrote. “We cannot allow this to happen.”

It’s not clear whether Mr. Heller will have a clear shot at the nomination. Sharron Angle, who lost a high-profile bid to oust the Democratic majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, is rumored to be interested in trying again.

But Mr. Heller has been a likely contender for statewide office in Nevada a number of times and probably would be favored in a primary contest against Ms. Angle.

In his e-mail, first reported by Jon Ralston, a political reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, Mr. Heller bragged about his opposition to the TARP program to rescue the banking system, calling it an example of “debt-fueled bailouts” that hurt the economy.

“Congress can no longer refuse to make tough fiscal decisions and stick our children and grandchildren with the
massive debt that has been allowed to accrue for far too long,” Mr. Heller said. “We must take control of government spending to instill long-term economic growth in our country.”

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Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is not planning to announce his decision on a Senate run in Virginia until next week at the earliest, according to a senior Democratic official authorized to discuss Mr. Kaine’s plans on background.

Mr. Kaine is attending an event in honor of former Representative Rick Boucher from Virginia this weekend, prompting speculation that he might announce his plans then. But the official said that Mr. Kaine will not say anything about his future at the event.

Pressure from Democrats has been building on Mr. Kaine to decide whether he will leave the D.N.C. chairman’s job to run for Senate. He was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010. Mr. Kaine spent last week on vacation talking to his family about the decision, officials close to him said recently.

The seat became open when Senator Jim Webb announced in February that he would not seek a second term. Former Senator George Allen, who lost the seat to Mr. Webb in 2006, has already announced his plans to run again. He will likely face a challenge from a Tea Party supporter, Jamie Radtke, for the Republican nomination.

The race presents an prime opportunity for Republicans to pick up a seat as they try to reclaim the Senate majority in 2012.

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