The Senate on Monday afternoon cast its only roll call vote of the day confirming Edgardo Ramos to be a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York by a 89-0 margin. 

The House on Monday afternoon spent a little more than a half hour debating seven suspension bills, setting up roll call votes for Tuesday, and adjourned just after 4 p.m.

The suspension bills will require a two-thirds majority vote for passage, but that threshold should be reached easily if the brief Monday debate is any guide. Reps. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Ben Lujan (D-NM) ran the debate, which was comprised mostly of Hastings offering support for each bill, and Lujan agreeing.

Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday called the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet program a "scandal" and "tragedy," and demanded greater accountability for the weapons system's maker, Lockheed Martin. 

"The Joint Strike Fighter program has been both a scandal and a tragedy," said McCain from the Senate floor Monday. "[W]e are saddled with a program has little to show for itself after 10 years and $56 billion in taxpayer investment that has produced less than 20 test and operational aircraft."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned his Republican colleagues on Monday that if they voted against Democrats' latest version of President Obama's payroll tax cut extension, they would do so at "their own peril."

The House Financial Services chairman was one of several lawmakers named in a "60 Minutes" piece on stock trading

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Sunday called for a ban on government regulations that would cost more than $100 million and said the plan might become viable if a few more conservatives make it into the Senate in the 2012 elections.

"I guess we'll become the first developed nation on earth without a postal service," Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said.

Washington, D.C.'s plan to retool its Southwest waterfront area is expected to get a boost this week when the House approves legislation that would officially transfer authority over sections of the area to the District.

The House plans to take up H.R. 2297, offered by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), under a suspension of House rules as early as Tuesday.

The House this week is expected to pass legislation that bans synthetic drugs that can affect the brain in ways similar to the active ingredient in marijuana.

The Synthetic Drug Control Act, H.R. 1254, was introduced in March by Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), and was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in early November by voice vote.

"The passage of H.R. 1254 in the Committee on the Judiciary represents another important step in efforts to ban the sale of new and dangerous synthetic drugs," Dent said after committee passage.