House

The House voted Wednesday night to prohibit the government from spending any money in fiscal year 2014 to implement any changes to rules on what sharp objects can be brought on airplanes.

The vote came on the same day that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decided against its original plan to allow two-inch knives on planes. TSA was prepared to allow this policy change, but faced a backlash from Congress and others worried that it would allow put air passengers at risk of another 9/11-style attack.

The House on Wednesday quickly eliminated language in a 2014 spending bill that would have effectively banned immigration from Brazil for a year.

The language was a proposal from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), and included in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill in a House Appropriations Committee markup. Ryan's language was aimed at pressuring Brazil to extradite Claudia Hoerig to the United States for trial in the murder of her husband, Air Force Major Karl Hoerig.

The House on Wednesday voted down two Democratic attempts to cut a program that gives some authority to state and local officials to enforce immigration laws.

Democrats oppose the so-called 287(g) program as something that has caused racial tensions in local communities between police and residents. As a result, they tried twice to pare back the program with amendments to H.R. 2217, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

Smith won a special election in Missouri to fill the vacant seat created by the retirement of Rep. Emerson.

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has proposed a bill cutting the number of seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from eleven to eight, which would make moot President Obama's nomination of three people to fill up the vacant seats on that court.

Cotton said his Stop Court Packing Act, H.R. 2239, is justified because the DC court has the "lightest caseload of any federal appellate court in the country."

A group of Democratic lawmakers urged members of the Obama administration Wednesday to protect surviving spouses from foreclosure.

“Surviving spouses throughout the country have found themselves in this troubling situation,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter. “These individuals, who also may be struggling with responsibility for medical bills, funeral costs, and other expenses while adjusting to a loss of income, are trapped without a means of preventing the loss of their homes.”

The House on Wednesday afternoon defeated a Republican proposal to kill all funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the 2014 Department of Homeland Security spending bill.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) brought up the idea during amendment debate, and said that by eliminating the bloated and ineffective TSA, taxpayers would immediately save about $5 billion.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) on Wednesday said House GOP leaders need to do a better job avoiding wasteful spending that happens when unauthorized federal programs are funded each year.

McClintock said that since 1835, Congress has only been allowed to fund programs that are first authorized by Congress.

After meeting for morning speeches at 10 a.m., the House returns at noon to work on H.R. 2217, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

This is the second 2014 spending bill the House will consider this year, having passed a military construction and Veterans Affairs bill on Tuesday.

The House late Tuesday easily approved the first 2014 spending bill of the year.