Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went off the script Wednesday morning as they debated President Obama's payroll tax cut, which the upper chamber will likely debate later this week.  

A freshman Republican expressed his disappointment Wednesday that President Obama didn't mention God in his Thanksgiving address. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would make it a crime under U.S. law to take young girls out of the U.S. for the purpose of genital mutilation.

Reid's bill, the Girls' Protection Act, follows up on the successful passage of another Reid bill in 1996 that criminalizes this procedure in the U.S. on girls under the age of 18. But he said that law has what he called a "vacation loophole" that allows female genital mutilation, or FGM, to take place on U.S. girls when they are out of the country.

The House returns for its first full day of work since the Thanksgiving break, and aside from advancing several GOP priorities such as those regarding union elections and deregulation, members will approve a resolution honoring a slain staffer to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Gabriel Zimmerman.

The resolution, H.Res. 364, will name HVC 215 of the Capitol Visitor Center as the Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room. The resolution will get 40 minutes of debate, and will need a two-thirds majority vote for passage under a suspension of House rules — no hurdle at all for a bill that will likely pass unanimously.

The Senate will hold an 11 a.m. cloture vote on Wednesday to close debate on S.1867, the Department of Defense Authorization bill.

The Senate adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday night and is set to return at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

The House on Tuesday evening made quick work of the last three suspension bills up today, after debating them earlier in the day. The last three bills needed a two-thirds majority vote, which they easily received.

By a 389-15 vote, the House approved H.R. 3012, which lifts the per country cap on employment-related visas.

By 407-1, members approved H.R. 2192, which eases bankruptcy rules for members of the National Guard and Reserves.

And by 404-0, the House approved H.R. 1801, which requires a program easing airport screening rules for members of the Armed Services.

The Senate agreed by unanimous consent Tuesday evening to an amendment that would reauthorize funding for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs for eight years. That amendment was tacked on to the underlying defense authorization bill. 

Both programs are designed to assist small businesses in expanding.

The Senate on Tuesday evening defeated an amendment to repeal authorization for the use force against Iraq which was penned by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in order to clarify that Congress, not President Obama, "retains" the power to declare and terminate warfare. 

"This is a debate over power," Paul said in the debate leading up to the 30-67 defeat "The executive branch wants to keep the unlimited power to commit troops to war. This vote is about whether we will continue to abdicate that power. We need to have checks and balances."

The Obama administration on Tuesday evening warned that it would veto two deregulation bills the House plans to approve this week.

House Republicans plan to move the Regulatory Accountability Act, which would require all federal agencies to base regulations on evidence of their necessity, and put forward alternatives, and the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act, which would boost two existing laws requiring all regulations to be reviewed to ensure they do not hamper small businesses.