Government Oversight

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) this week pressed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to scale back the Justice Department's use of executive jets in order to help deal with spending cuts under the sequester.

Grassley's request is somewhat ironic, as the Obama administration for several years has pushed for an end to deductions on private business owners who use corporate jets as a way to help reduce the deficit.

South Carolina lawmakers asked the Department of Justice on Thursday why it wasn’t prosecuting more felons and fugitives who fail background checks while trying to purchase a gun.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said instead of Congress passing gun-control legislation that limits Second Amendment rights, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should be enforcing current laws that punish felons and fugitives trying to buy guns.

A group of Senate Democrats wants the federal government to collect more information on hate crimes against Sikh, Hindu and Arab Americans.

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) lead 24 other Democratic senators to write a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday. The senators requested that Holder and Mueller revise the Hate Crime Incident Report to collect data on hate crimes motivated by bias against Sikh, Hindu and Arab Americans.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) on Monday blasted a decision by the Department of Transportation to spend $520,000 to repair an historic covered bridge in Ohio that will not be open to traffic.

"When towns in every county in every state need infrastructure improvements and updates, it's frustrating to see half a million dollars being spent on a bridge that serves no clear transportation purpose," Reed said. "It's an insult to taxpayers."

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would remove hemp from the list of controlled substances in order to allow U.S. farmers to grow the plant.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced a bill Thursday to amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana.

The House Rules Committee is hoping to explore the process of creating a two-year budget cycle in the House, in an effort to get Congress back on track to a more methodical consideration of bills affecting the federal budget.

The committee outlined its intent in an oversight report that it is expected to approve on Wednesday. Once passed, the oversight plan does not need the consent of the full House.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a gun-control measure Thursday that would clarify that Congress does not authorize persons convicted of dangerous crimes in foreign courts to legally have firearms in the United States.

The No Firearms for Foreign Felons Act, S. 261, would ensure that people convicted of foreign felonies and crimes involving domestic violence cannot possess firearms.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Thursday criticized the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for failing to answer questions about Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew's failure to propose legislation to shore up Medicare, and said this failure could put Lew's nomination at risk.

Sessions wrote to OMB over the weekend asking why it has not proposed a bill to deal with the shortfall in Medicare funding despite current law that requires the administration to propose a legislative fix when funding problems are identified.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday that the House would vote next week on legislation that would continue the freeze on federal salaries that has been in effect for more than two years.

House Republicans had originally planned to vote on the bill from Freshman Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) back in January, but ended up delaying consideration.

"We are in the process of a dramatic shift in the marijuana policy landscape," Rep. Blumenauer said.