From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Financial lobbyists are closely watching two key amendments that could dramatically reshape financial overhaul legislation and the proposed consumer protection agency, "The Hill reports. "The House Rules Committee was scheduled to vote by" this afternoon "on whether to allow floor debate on amendments backed by Reps. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) and Melissa Bean (D-Ill.). Centrist House Democrats, including Minnick and Bean, are wary of the scope of proposed powers under the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA)."

• "More than 800 companies and organizations that were not involved in health care at all last year... listed the hot-button topic as an issue that they were lobbying on this year in disclosure reports filed with Congress," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "That is an increase of almost a third in the number of entities lobbying on health care."

• "Unions are ramping up lobbying efforts to remove an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans in the Senate healthcare reform bill," The Hill reports. "New ad campaigns and coordinated fly-in visits to Capitol Hill by union members this week will keep the pressure on Senate Democrats."

• "Represented by the National Automobile Dealers Association, the dealers are a powerful local force, and they flexed serious muscle to win an exemption in the House version of the" Consumer Federal Protection Agency "bill, over the opposition of the committee's powerful chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)," Politico reports. "Across the field from the auto dealers in this brawl are the consumer advocates -- a coalition that, after years of unheeded warnings, have gained new clout in the post-crisis world."