House recessed till 2 p.m.

With Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) at the helm as speaker pro tempore, the House convened at noon for 'morning hour' and recessed at 12.15 p.m.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) made the first speech on the coming budget fight in which he criticized Republicans for creating "impossible scenarios" on budget reduction and complained that Republicans seem willing to audit every agency except for the Pentagon.  But DeFazio also said he welcomed the chance to take on the difficult subject of reduction.

"We are finally going to get serious about the mountain of debt,” he said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) also delivered a speech in which he decried the cost of the wars and cited an editorial from three years ago that asserted that the country could not afford to have both "guns and butter."

The House will reconvene at 2 p.m.