The House will convene next Wednesday to vote on a resolution disapproving of President Obama's request to increase the debt limit by another $1.2 trillion.

Passage of the resolution, offered by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), will not prevent the debt limit from increasing, as a similar resolution would have to pass the Senate, and the Senate is not expected to consider a disapproval resolution.

The House Rules Committee will meet Tuesday evening to approve a rule for the resolution. Then, members will vote on the rule and the resolution itself on Wednesday, Jan. 18.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), in a speech on Wednesday, gave low marks to Congress's performance in 2011, suggesting the Democratically-controlled upper chamber had stymied legislative progress.

Several House members on Thursday called on the Obama administration to take a tougher line on human rights violations in Vietnam.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), ranking member Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and four other members wrote a four-page letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for new details to be included in the State Department's upcoming human rights report.

Rep. Joe Wilson (S.C.), the Republican lawmaker who famously shouted, "You lie!" during President Obama's 2009 State of the Union address to Congress, predicted Wednesday the president would not win a second term in office.

"I believe there will be change in the U.S. Senate," Wilson said Wednesday in a speech in Huntsville, Ala as reported by The Huntsville Times. "And there will be change as we elect a new president."

The Obama administration's Justice Department released a 23-page opinion on Thursday that said the president is free to make recess appointments to his administration whenever the Senate is not available to provide "advice and consent," and that occasional pro forma sessions are therefore not hurdles to a recess appointment.

Justice's memo is, in effect, an answer to House and Senate Republicans who have argued over the past week that Obama's four recess appointments violated the Constitution because neither chamber can go into recess unless both agree. The House has purposefully prevented recesses since last year in order to prevent recess appointments.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday told a Kentucky audience that after the results of the New Hampshire primary there remain just two viable candidates for the GOP nomination — his father, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Thursday issued another warning against Iran's increasing ties to Latin America, this time calling for a closer look at whether Iran is trying to access uranium from Ecuador.

Her comments were the latest in a series meant to call attention to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to several Latin American countries this week.

"Over the last five years, Iran's economic investments in Ecuador have been effectively used to secure a loyal ally within our Hemisphere that could help Iran circumvent U.S. and U.N. sanctions," she said. "Iran's deepened alliance with [Ecuador President Rafael] Correa also facilitates Tehran's ability to access Ecuador’s uranium deposits.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) rallied crowds in opposition to the Protect Internet Providers Act (PIPA) at the world's largest computer show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, arguing that new regulations created by the pending legislation would severely damage small online businesses.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), responding to attacks from his Republican opponent for the 2012 elections on Tuesday, defending votes he cast for some of President Obama's least popular policies.

Tester conceded, for example, that Obama's 2010 healthcare reform law was not perfect, but said there was real need among Montanans for at least some of its provisions.

"There are far, far, far too many folks out there who didn't have access to health care because they couldn't afford insurance," Tester said in the interview with the Helena Independent Record on Tuesday. "No, we haven't seen that [health care] cost curve bent downward yet, but the law is not fully implemented yet."