Taxes -- Extenders to Bypass Senate Finance Cmte.: With the election year compressing the legislative calendar and an underlying conflict on PAYGO simmering in committee, it appears the Senate bill extending expiring tax breaks will bypass the Senate Finance Committee and reach the Senate vote once the climate change bill is voted on. Committee member Mike Crapo (R-ID) warned: "When you bypass the committee, then you basically set up more of a partisan fight on the floor," he said, predicting a filibuster. Senate Extenders Bill Summary. War Supplemental -- UI Extension may be Dropped House Democrats are likely to drop a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits from a major spending package that includes continued funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that would create a new education benefit for military veterans. The Senate-approved version of the war spending bill would cost more than $250 billion over 10 years, a price tag that the fiscally conservative caucus of "Blue Dog" House Democrats opposes. Wash. Post. Transparency -- Levin Seeks Defense Spending Watchdog: Senate Armed Services Committee chair Carl Levin (D-MI) hopes to amend the 2009 defense appropriations bill to create a new senior defense official to oversee Pentagon program cost estimates, in an effort to address the huge overruns plaguing the military's system for buying new weapons and equipment. In a sign that the initiative should receive bipartisan support, the committee's top Republican, Virginia Sen. John Warner, said he would support the move. Wall Street Journal ($)