Defense

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) on Thursday blamed the Obama administration for failing to come up with an answer to the sequester, which he said is forcing people at a major Air Force base to work in buildings with no lights on.

On the House floor, Turner showed a picture of people working in darkened hallways of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he would grill Army officials testifying before his Appropriation subcommittee next week on the growing problem of military sexual assaults.

“Reports of widespread sexual assaults in the armed services show a disgraceful culture of abuse that must be stopped,” Durbin said Wednesday. “Next week, the Army will be before my subcommittee and they will face tough questions about these accusations.”

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) called on Congress Tuesday to immediately address the “astounding and totally unacceptable” problem of sexual assault in the military.

“I am here to discuss the sexual assault crisis that is facing our military and the need to act immediately,” Hagan said on the Senate floor. “The brave service members that put their lives on the line should not have to worry about their safety on U.S. bases. … No one should ever have to deal with those kinds of concerns especially when they are already putting their lives on the line for our country.”

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday went to the Senate floor to call on President Obama to take tougher action against Syrian President Bashar al Assad, including arming his opposition and possibly missile strikes.

In a colloquy, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) all said Obama should put military pressure on the Syrian regime by arming rebel groups fighting the Assad regime.

Graham and McCain have long been hawkish on Syria, but the pressure from Levin and Menendez points to growing support in Congress for tougher actions against Syria.

McCain even suggested that the U.S. could use precision strikes to target Syria's ballistic missiles and chemical weapons.

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would help protect military service members from sexual assault.

They introduced the bill the same day the military announced that the number of sexual assault victims has increased by more than 30 percent. It is estimated that nearly 26,000 service members were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military last year.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) on Tuesday called on Congress to pass new legislation to strengthen sexual assault prevention measures in the military, on the same day the Defense Department released a report showing sexual assaults increased in 2012.

Speier was also reacting to reports that Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, the chief sexual assault prevention officer, was charged with sexual battery over the weekend.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) called on President Obama to acknowledge a congressional report that says the CIA mislead the public about its detention and interrogation programs.

“Only by acknowledging and correcting the false public record can the CIA — with your support — credibly institute the necessary reforms that are essential for the CIA to be its best,” Udall wrote in letter to Obama that was sent Wednesday.

Reps. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.) on Tuesday called on Congress to preserve a $40 million program aimed at preventing the number of military suicides.

In a letter to House appropriators, Runyan, Holt and more than 90 other members said the fiscal 2014 appropriations bills must include that funding going forward, as suicide remains a problem among members of the Armed Forces.

GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) said their libertarian colleagues who say the United States should not be considered part of the battlefield in the war on terror are “ignoring the recent events” in Boston.

“These tragic events bring home again that this fight is far from over,” McCain said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “The battlefield is the United States of America, and anyone who doesn’t believe that is ignoring the recent events that we will hopefully overcome.”

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said on Wednesday that he would enlist the help of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to ensure that the Defense Department makes a finding that two Marine pilots were not at fault in a 2000 Osprey crash that took their lives.

"I will go to the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, who I know and I have a friendship with," Jones said on the House floor. "And I will ask him to assign someone on his immediate staff to work with me on this issue."