Ben Bernanke may have cleared the hurdles to his confirmation for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, but that does not mean lawmakers will be any friendlier to him at high-profile hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Fed chief's semiannual report to Congress should feature both impassioned debate over financial regulation and lots of questions about the central bank's evolving strategy to remove unprecedented monetary stimulus from the financial system.

With the economy just emerging from the worst recession since the Great Depression, the Fed and its chairman have come under fire for not doing enough to prevent the financial meltdown. Bernanke was confirmed late last month by a 70-30 margin, the tightest-ever Senate vote for a Fed chairman.

"Perhaps the most interesting part of the testimony will be the way the oversight committees treat the chairman, after the hostility they've recently displayed toward the Federal Reserve and Bernanke himself, especially through the confirmation struggle," said Larry Meyer, a former Fed Board governor now with Macroeconomic Advisers. >>