Senators sparred Wednesday over a controversial amendment to ban the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating the emission of greenhouse gasses.

The Senate is expected to vote on the amendment later on Wednesday.

Republicans described the EPA regulations as an overstep.

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Members of the House on Wednesday approved a rule for considering H.R. 910, which would strip the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The House approved the rule in a 250-172 vote in which 12 Democrats voted with Republicans.

The House has an hour for debate on the bill and then will consider a dozen Democratic amendments.

House Republicans on Wednesday said legislation limiting regulation on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is needed to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing de facto taxes on U.S. companies, while Democrats warned limiting the EPA would set back decades of progress on the environment.

The debate took place in the context of the rule for H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would prevent the EPA from regulating GHG. Republicans see this as a needed step given the EPA's effort to do through regulation what Democrats cannot pass through Congress, such as a cap-and-trade policy.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said in his opening remarks in the debate that the Clean Air Act should not be used as a basis for EPA regulations on GHG and that only Congress should have this right. Sessions said GHG regulations would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years and for that reason, the bill would help save jobs.

"It's a jobs-protection bill," he said.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) on Wednesday put forward a motion to adjourn the House shortly after noon in order to force the two parties to negotiate a FY 2011 budget agreement. Jackson also protested a Republican proposal to pass a one-week spending measure that would cut $12 billion from the budget while funding Defense spending for the rest of the year.

“That’s no compromise,” he said. “For months, the Republicans have said that as we reduce spending, everyone has to take a haircut — including the Department of Defense. But now, the Republicans propose increasing military spending.”

Jackson cited a press report saying Republicans were cheering the prospects of a government shutdown.

“So if the Republicans won’t compromise at the negotiating table, maybe we should get everyone down here to the floor to talk things over,” he concluded. “Mr. Speaker, I move that the house do now adjourn.”

Jackson requested a recorded vote at about 12:30 p.m., but it failed 36-367. All 36 “yes” votes came from Democrats, and 141 Democrats voted with Republicans not to adjourn the House.

—This post was updated at 12:55 to reflect the vote results.

Freshman Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) delivered a resounding endorsement of small government principles during her maiden speech Wednesday on the Senate floor, citing the New Hampshire motto "live free or die."

“We believe strongly that government should not and cannot get in the way of each of us reaching our full potential,” said Ayotte. “That’s what 'live free or die' means.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Wednesday said the murder of several United Nations workers by Afghan protesters is a far worse offense than the burning of a Quran in the United States, which prompted the attacks. He also criticized Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's reaction to the Quran burning.

"There needs to be even greater condemnation of the notion that [the Quran burning] in any way justifies murder," Frank said on the House floor. "That includes a condemnation, in my judgment, of the president of Afghanistan, our increasingly unimpressive ally, Mr. Karzai, who I believe added to the furor there by insisting that the man who burned the Quran should have been prosecuted."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday morning offered no clues that Republicans and Democrats are close to a budget deal, and instead said the Republicans' failure to compromise is raising the risk of a government shutdown.

"Rather than compromise with President Obama and the Democrats in the Senate and the House, Republicans are threatening once again to shut down government, as they did in 1995," Hoyer said on the House floor.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Republicans are "refusing to take yes for an answer" in the negotiations over funding the government.

"They said 'no' when we met them halfway, and then they said, 'It's our way or the highway,' " said Reid. “The Republicans have demanded a budget that can only pass with Republican votes.”

The House returns at 10 a.m. for general speeches, which could once again give members a chance to vent about the apparent lack of a budget deal for fiscal 2011.

As of Wednesday morning, House Republicans had not announced plans to pass their one-week spending bill, H.R. 1363. But that announcement could come at any time, as Republicans made the bill public on Monday, and their three-day rule would allow House consideration any time Wednesday.