Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) offered advice to the members of the deficit-reduction supercommittee from the Senate floor on Tuesday, saying their report should be focused on job creation. 

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) on Tuesday afternoon criticized the Obama administration for suing South Carolina over its immigration law that requires local law enforcement to coordinate with federal officials when they suspect someone of being in the U.S. illegally.

Speaking on the House floor, Poe said the administration is once again showing that it will look to sue states that try to get a handle on the growing illegal immigration problem that the federal government is failing to resolve.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday released a 2012 calendar that will have senators working in lengthy stretches throughout the first part of the year, but again will leave the House and Senate with different work schedules next year, as they had this year.

The Senate plans to meet on January 23, and work four weeks until the Presidents' Day recess from February 20-24. Senators will then meet for five straight weeks at the end of February and March before leaving for a two-week recess beginning April 2.

The Senate cleared a $182 billion appropriations "minibus" bill Tuesday in a bipartisan 69-30 vote.

The Senate voted down legislation on Tuesday that would have defunded a government program that funds air service to out-of-the-way communities.

Opponents of the amendment, such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.), said the program promotes business and stimulates local economies. 

The Senate voted Tuesday morning to kill an amendment proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would have wiped out $1 billion in funding from rural development programs for FY 2012.

The rural development programs run by the Department of Agriculture help pay to improve housing, build community facilities and fund infrastructure projects, such as supplying broadband Internet to rural areas where demand is low.

Only 13 senators voted for the amendment.  

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, introduced a bill on Monday that would establish background checks for Washington, D.C., employees similar to the one now used at the federal level.

Issa said this change is needed to help control what he said are "outrageous abuses" in the local D.C. government.

Conservative firebrand Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) clashed briefly on the Senate floor on Tuesday over an amendment that would have taken federal highway funds designated for beautification projects and dedicated them instead to repairing crumbling bridges.

“Three million dollars spent on a turtle tunnel,” said Paul, citing one often-derided example of how the funds were allocated. “You want to keep spending it on turtle tunnels?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday morning continued to insist from the Senate floor that America's wealthy citizenry ought to take a tax hike in order to help fund the latest break-away bill from President Obama's job-creating legislation. 

"Their tremendous fortune … their tremendous fortunes means they can afford to contribute a teeny, tiny fraction more to shore up the economic future of our nation," Reid said, speaking of the rich from the Senate floor.