House

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday called on House GOP leaders to allow a vote on a bill expanding firearms background checks, to mark Friday's six-month mark since the Newtown, Conn., shooting that left 20 children dead.

Pelosi and other Democrats spoke on the House floor about their meetings this week with many of the parents of Newtown schoolchildren. She said these parents are continuing to push for gun legislation, but said House Republicans have failed to allow a vote on any legislation yet.

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday introduced legislation that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from redirecting funds to hold conferences and parties for IRS employees.

The Stop Internal Resource Slush (IRS) Fund Act, H.R. 2345, is a reaction to last week's congressional hearing in which IRS officials admitted to holding a $4 million conference during which IRS employees dressed up as Star Trek characters.

The House on Thursday will start work on 172 amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2014, H.R. 1960.

The House Rules Committee approved a rule for the bill very early Thursday morning, which makes in order 70 GOP amendments, 64 Democratic amendments and 38 bipartisan proposals — descriptions of all the amendments are here. The committee made most amendments in order, as members had offered 299 of them.

The Georgia Democrat is taking the food stamp challenge, living on just $31.50 worth of food for a week.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that despite efforts by the House to reduce sexual assault in the military, the problem will only be resolved when leaders work to change the culture of the U.S. Armed Forces.

"No piece of legislation is going to fix this," Smith said at the start of floor debate on the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The House voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would require the Executive Branch to issue a single set of rules relating to derivatives trades between U.S. and non-U.S. entities.

Members passed H.R. 1256, the Swap Jurisdiction Certainty Act, in a 301-124 vote — Democrats split 73-122 in the vote. The bill has both Republican and Democratic cosponsors, but many House Democrats opposed it vigorously during an hour-long debate.

The House passed three bills Wednesday that would ease federal regulations related to the use of financial "swaps," and to how data on these swaps is shared internationally.

The changes are non-controversial and reflect bipartisan cooperation on a narrow set of issues — they are a far cry from more dramatic proposals to Republicans to gut the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

The House approved a bill governing floor debate for the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), even as Democrats warned that they would look to add tougher language to help reverse the rising tide of sexual assault in the military.

Members voted 239-184 in favor of the rule; only 10 Democrats supported it. The rule calls for an hour of debate on the bill, H.R 1960, which will take place later Wednesday.

The House on Wednesday quickly and easily approved legislation aimed at helping the federal government avoid taking on excessive debt through a reverse mortgage program.

By voice vote, members approved H.R. 2167, the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act. This bill would allow the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make critical changes to the reverse mortgage program under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) without having to wait 18 months or longer to issue regulations.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said on Wednesday that a 10-year-old-girl's fight with the federal government to gain access to a healthy lung is an early look at the control the government will have under ObamaCare.

McClintock was reacting to the refusal of Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to change federal rules that say people age 12 and older can get on the adult waiting list for a lung transplant. That rule stopped 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan of Pennsylvania from getting on that list, even though she was diagnosed with end-stage cystic fibrosis and desperately needed a transplant to live.