Other

Rep. Maxine Waters called the supercommittee secretive and a threat to the democratic process.

Capitol Police, D.C. police and the FBI responded to a bomb threat near the Capitol campus Saturday night.

The Capitol campus returned to the quiet pace of recess in Washington on Wednesday morning following a 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Monday reaffirmed that he would not run for a third Senate term in 2016, thereby sticking to his pledge to serve only two Senate terms.

Speaking at a town-hall meeting in Enid, Okla., Coburn urged his constituents to demand that politicians tell the truth, and said politicians should be fired when they fail.

"But you can't fire me, because I'm not running again," he said, according to the Muskogee Phoenix.

Coburn first made a term-limit pledge when he was a member of the lower chamber. He served just three terms in the House before leaving voluntarily, then successfully ran for the Senate in 2004.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) took some swings at Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) during a Wednesday town-hall meeting, but said his decision on whether to seek Hatch's Senate seat would not be made until football season.

"You don't have to have 36 years of seniority to get things done in Washington," Chaffetz said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. "Seniority doesn’t matter if you don’t vote right."

House Chaplain Patrick Conroy offered a brief prayer for past House pages on Tuesday morning, after House leaders decided to end the nearly 200-year-old page program.

"We pray also on this day in gratitude for the generations of young people who have served this assembly as congressional pages," Conroy said in Tuesday's brief pro forma House session. "Like so many in our nation, their dedicated work for many years is giving way to improved technology and economic forces."

Ten U.S. senators on Thursday introduced a resolution calling for a moment of silence on Sunday, Sept. 11 — the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that resulted in the destruction of New York's World Trade Center, damage to the Pentagon and the loss of nearly 3,000 American lives.

The resolution, S.Res. 228, recounts the events of 9/11 and recognizes Sept. 11, 2011, as "a day of solemn commemoration" of those events. It also recognizes the service of first responders and "reaffirms that the people of the United States will never forget the challenges our country endured on and since Sept. 11, 2001."

The House is set to vote on repealing an election commission set up after the controversial 2000 presidential election

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said this week he would soon introduce legislation that would prevent San Francisco and other cities from banning the circumcision of males under 18.

Sherman said his pending bill is a reaction to plans by San Francisco to make the procedure a misdemeanor that is punishable by a prison term of up to one year and a fine of $1,000. This measure has qualified to be on the November 2011 ballot in San Francisco.

Bipartisan amendment from Sens. Hatch and Baucus would allow Congress to pass laws to protect the American flag.