Defense

McCain urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to allow a vote on the bill.

The House on Monday afternoon approved legislation that would increase the rates of compensation for veterans with service-related disabilities, and for survivors of disabled veterans.

The Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, H.R. 4367, was easily approved in a voice vote. The bill, from Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), is one of two veterans-related bills debated on Monday.

The other one, from Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), would require federal agencies to give credit to veterans for training they received in the military, as long as the training requirements are similar. A vote on that bill, H.R. 4155, could take place later Monday evening.

The House is set to approve a Department of Defense spending bill this month that would limit DOD's ability to spend money on new programs that haven't been reviewed or authorized by Congress.

H.R. 5856, the DOD appropriations bill for 2013, would cut DOD's ability to "reprogram" funds for other purposes by $3 billion throughout the bill, a change that the House Appropriations Committee said is prompted by an increased reliance on reprogramming. In a report accompanying the bill, the committee said it is worried about this trend, and sees it as an "apparent erosion of the department's fiscal discipline."

The House is preparing to work on two 2013 spending bills for the Department of Defense, the Treasury Department and other agencies, both of which are likely to be taken up on the House floor after the July 4 break.

The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, H.R. 5856, would spend $519.2 billion on the DOD's base budget, just a bit more than 2012 levels. But the bill would sharply reduce spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: it cuts nearly $27 billion from so-called "overseas contingency operations."

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he would introduce legislation this week that would block what he said are the Obama administration's unilateral plans to involve itself militarily with Syria.

"This week I'm introducing legislation to prohibit the administration, absent a declaration of war by Congress, from supporting directly or indirectly any military or paramilitary operations in Syria," Paul said on the House floor. "I hope my colleagues will join me in this effort."

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) last week introduced legislation that would prevent armed aerial drones from being operated in the United States against people or property.

Burgess's No Armed Drones Act, or NADA, would amend the FAA Modernization and Reform Act to prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft systems as weapons in U.S. airspace, and would prevent the secretary of Transportation from authorizing anyone to use these drones to "deliver a weapon against a person or property."

It would also prevent the manufacture, sale or distribution of armed drones for use in the United States.

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Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) called on House GOP leaders Wednesday to accept Senate language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would give women in the Armed Forces the same access to abortion that civilian federal employees have, such as in cases involving rape or incest.

Brown sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), which said the sexual assault of women in the military is "far more prevalent" than many believed, and that it is critical to provide these women with abortion services similar to those granted to civilian employees.

Paul's bill is aimed at preventing "unwarranted governmental intrusion" through the use of drones, according to the lawmaker.

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) on Tuesday said members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are working closely to develop legislation aimed at reducing the incidence of security leaks, and said he has several questions about the contacts Obama administration officials have had with various media outlets, and whether those contacts led to the leaks.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Coats said he takes the administration at its word that these leaks were not intentional, but said the leaks are nontheless "inexcusable" if former or current officials were involved in any way.

Four members of the House are trying again to scale back the power of the president to indefinitely detain terrorist suspects, even though the House rejected a similar proposal last month.

Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) introduced the Civil Liberties Act on Friday, which would amend the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed in May.