Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) will have an opportunity this week to commune with his favorite Obama administration Cabinet member when she comes before his committee to defend her agency's fiscal 2013 budget request.

The Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member routinely calls U.S. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson a friend, both because he says she answers questions directly and because she apparently has a picture of his 20 children and grandchildren on her office wall.

"I like Lisa Jackson," he is fond of saying. In fact, on a recent appearance on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC, Inhofe named Jackson, along with his committee chairman, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and Maddow herself, as "my three favorite liberals."

But Inhofe doesn't like most of what Jackson's agency has done in the past three years since President Obama took office, especially its suite of new Clean Air Act rules for greenhouse gases, mercury, and smog- and soot-forming emissions, which he has said would squelch job creation.

Jackson is the sole witness invited to testify Thursday at the full committee hearing. She has already addressed the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding her agency. At both, she fielded questions from Republicans about her agency's air and water quality rules and about the possible effects they may have on a range of industries including coal mining.

Obama has requested $8.3 billion for EPA, more than 1 percent below current funding levels. The number is likely to drop still further before the appropriations process ends -- likely with a continuing resolution or series of resolutions later this year.

House Republicans have predicted that EPA will receive at least 6 percent less than it did in fiscal 2012, while Democrats have faulted EPA for cuts it has proposed in programs like the Clean Water Revolving Fund.

Senate appropriators have yet to begin holding hearings on the budget, but Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees EPA, has said he hopes to again keep anti-EPA riders from hitching a ride on legislation to fund the agency and the Interior Department.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the subpanel's top Republican, said last week that she does not know what is in store for appropriations during a legislative year cut short by national elections.

"What's the way forward on any of the spending bills?" she said. "I think the chairman has made a strong commitment that he would like to see regular order proceed within the committees -- the appropriations committees -- and we're certainly going to be doing that within Department of Interior" appropriations subcommittee.

Asked about where cuts might be made for fiscal 2013, Murkowski said appropriations subcommittees "are going to have to be looking at these departments and asking good, strong questions."

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, March 22, at 10 a.m. at 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Witness: U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.