The House easily killed an amendment offered by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) that would have stripped $297 million for a new bomber program from the 2012 Pentagon spending bill.

During floor debate Wednesday on the chamber's Pentagon appropriations measure, Welch questioning whether the aircraft initiative is affordable amid America's economic crisis. He also noted other federal agencies’ budgets have been targeted for significant reductions while the Pentagon has been kept “immune.”

The Welch amendment would have taken $297 million in the Defense appropriations bill for research and development on the new bomber aircraft for the Air Force, one of that service’s top hardware priorities, and shifted it to a spending reduction account.

The chamber defeated the amendment 328-92.

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The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on whether it will consider Sen. Reid's millionaire tax resolution.

The House on Wednesday evening debated a resolution that calls on the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to be settled only through bilateral negotiations between both parties.

The resolution, H.Res. 268, was brought up under a suspension of House rules, usually reserved for non-controversial bills. While it is expected to pass easily, a vote on the measure was postponed, likely until Thursday.

The House on Wednesday evening approved two amendments to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act aimed at making it easier for private contractors to perform jobs now handled by federal workers.

By a close 212-208 vote, members approved language from Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would strike language in the bill prohibiting the Defense Department from contracting out commercial functions unless doing so saves $10 million or 10 percent of the cost.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Wednesday decried floor tactics from Senate Republicans that he says are unlike anything he has seen in his 27 years in the upper chamber.

"Everything we try to do, the folks on that side of the aisle make us take longer and longer and longer than we've ever taken before because they push every single procedural objection possible," said Kerry. Read more...

The House on Wednesday afternoon voted to restore full funding for military bands, after the House Appropriations Committee voted in June to limit funding for military musicians.

By voice vote, the House approved an amendment from Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) that eliminates a section of the Department of Defense Appropriations bill that would have limited funding for bands to $200 million. By eliminating that language, DOD is allowed to fund bands up to $320 million, which DOD was planning for FY 2012.

The House Wednesday afternoon had agreed to three minor amendments to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, all of which would ensure spending on specific health-related issues faced by U.S. service members.

By voice vote, the House agreed to an amendment from Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) that would take $16 million from a broad Defense-wide account and use it for a prostate cancer research program. Members also agreed to language from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) that would ensure $19 million goes to help people with traumatic brain injuries.

The chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee are planning to hold hearings soon on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which could open the door to questions about U.S. funding levels for NATO.

"We have agreed that following the completion of this fiscal year's defense appropriation bill, we plan to hold hearings and look thoroughly into what we see as the role of NATO today, tomorrow and next year," said subcommittee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) Wednesday. Young said he and ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) agreed to these hearings after holding several discussions about it this year.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Wednesday criticized President Obama and the Senate's Democratic leadership for failing to propose a plan that would solve the nation’s fiscal crisis.

“I wish I could report that Washington is serious about addressing this spending problem, but in the last week we seem to have hit a new low,” Hatch said.

“President Obama’s contribution last week was a press conference slash temper tantrum where he offered up policy proposals that might appeal to his left-wing base but will do nothing to avoid the bankruptcy."

In that press conference at the White House last week, President Obama shifted much of the blame for lack of progress in budget and debt-ceiling negotiations to Congress and exhorted the House and Senate to get back to work. 

Hatch went on to roast the Democratic leadership in the Senate for a bill currently being considered that would express a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution that Americans earning more than $1 million a year ought to pay higher taxes.