Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) mounted a vigorous defense of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on Monday and attacked conservative filmmaker James O' Keefe, reminding his Senate colleagues that O'Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for attempting to break into Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D) Louisiana office last year.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Monday night indicated he would again vote against a three-week spending bill on Tuesday, just as he voted against a two-week spending bill earlier in March, and urged others to reject the bill.

"For years we've heard 'for the good of the children,'" Gohmert said on the House floor. "By golly, it is for the good of the children that this body man up, across the aisle, and quit spending money that our children don't even have.

"Let's vote no 'til we can do some real saving," he concluded.

Gohmert was one of six Republicans who voted against the two-week spending bill on March 1. Others were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Walter Jones (N.C), Steve King (Iowa), and Ron Paul (Texas). Several of these members, including Gohmert, said they opposed the bill because it would fund Planned Parenthood.

The House on Monday night approved H.R. 793, which would name a California post office after Specialist Jake Robert Velloza, who was killed in Iraq in 2009. The bill was approved unanimously, 394-0.

The House also approved H.Con.Res. 27, which allows the House to accept a statue of President Gerald Ford and display it in the Capitol. This resolution was also approved unanimously, in a 396-0 vote. One member, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), voted "present" in this vote.

These votes were the only legislative business in the House on Monday, and the House will return Tuesday to take up a three-week spending bill that would cut another $6 billion from FY 2011 spending.

Just before the Monday evening votes, the House held a brief moment of silence for victims of the earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit Japan.

The Senate voted 84 to 12 on Monday to begin debate on an authorization bill that would fund the Small Business Administration (SBA) for 2011. 

The vote came after several Republican senators threatened to obstruct progress on any bill that did not deal directly with the nation's deficit in a "significant" way.

Sen. McCain says time is running out to help rebels battling Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) on Monday recalled then-President Gerald Ford's unplanned visit to President Nixon in California, which earned Ford new respect in the eyes of Lungren's father, who was Nixon's doctor at the time.

Rep. Lungren said the visit occurred after Ford pardoned Nixon, and said Ford wanted to visit Nixon some time later, after he had taken ill. Lungren said Ford's staff warned against the visit, since it would draw attention to the pardon.

"In response, Gerald Ford said, 'Richard Nixon is my friend. He's in trouble, I want to see him,'" Lungren said.

Majority Leader Reid said a bill that would create jobs is being threatened with delay by GOP senators.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Monday said the U.S. should not abandon the use of nuclear power in the wake of the tragedy in Japan, and said instead that the U.S. should incorporate the safety lessons learned in Japan into its own reactors.

"While the risk is by no means over and the events in Japan continue to evolve, the reactor safety systems so far appear to have done their job in withstanding the earthquake, tsunami, power loss, and explosions -- and none of the reactor containment structures seem to have been breached in these worst-case conditions," Alexander said in remarks on the Senate floor. "The lesson that America can take away is this: learn all we can from this Japanese experience to make the operation of American reactors as safe as possible."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans are acting as though the House proposal to slash $57 billion from 2011 government spending had not been rejected by the Senate last week.

"They are pretending last week’s votes did not happen," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday morning. "They are covering their eyes and ears to the reality that their proposal, the short-sighted bill that the Tea Party and Republicans in the House still support, was not roundly rejected here in the Senate."