Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) on Wednesday said the recent scandals involving the IRS and the Justice Department — and claims that the White House was unaware of them until they were reported — should be seen as an urgent warning that the government is too big for anyone to manage, even the president.

"The recent admission by IRS that it used its considerable authority and resources to target certain Americans because of their political affiliation should serve as an urgent warning to all Americans," Johnson said on the House floor. "The federal government is getting too large and has too much control."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats are trying to exercise a "power grab" by rushing the nomination of Srikanth Srinivasan to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court.

“Senate Democrats were incensed that Republicans had the temerity to exercise their advice and consent responsibility to block a grand total of one — that’s right, one — nominee to the D.C. Circuit,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“What did our Democrat colleagues do in response? They consulted with the White House and pledged to pack the D.C. Circuit with appointees, quote, ‘one way or the other’ — meaning using the nuclear option.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called on Republicans to work with Democrats to keep student loan rates low.

If Congress doesn’t act by July, student loan interest rates will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

A House bill would require Amtrak to open at least one car of each train for passengers transporting dogs and cats.

The House starts at 10 a.m., and in the afternoon, it will begin work on a bill to authorize the construction of the northern leg of the Keystone pipeline.

Members will start with the rule for the bill, which is H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act. Once the rule is approved in the early afternoon, the House will hold 90 minutes of debate, followed by consideration of up to 10 amendments.

Republicans on the House Rules Committee agreed Tuesday to make nine Democratic amendments in order to a bill authorizing construction of the Keystone pipeline, including one that would gut the bill entirely.

The House will take up H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, on Wednesday, when it is expected to pass with GOP support. Allowing debate on the nine amendments will give Democrats a chance to raise several problems they have with the bill, even though the substantive amendments are likely to fail.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) bucked members of his own party Tuesday by objecting to a GOP request to prohibit budget committee conferees from raising the debt ceiling.

“If my colleagues on this side of the aisle think that we are helping our cause as fiscal conservatives by blocking going to a conference on the budget, which every family in America has to be on, because of certain requirements that they demand, then we are not helping ourselves with the American people at all,” McCain said of his own party.

The Senate rejected two amendments to the farm bill Tuesday that would have changed the $4 billion-worth of cuts to food stamps.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) introduced an amendment that would have cut at least an additional $12 billion for the supplemental food assistance program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. His amendment failed on a 40-58 vote.

“My goal is simple to restore integrity to the supplemental food assistance program,” Roberts said ahead of the vote.

North Dakota Sens. John Hoeven (R) and Heidi Heitkamp (D) warned their colleagues not to support a farm bill amendment that would change subsidies for sugar farmers.

“This [sugar] program is critical to the compromise of the farm bill itself,” Heitkamp said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Let the bill stay intact.”