Reps. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) and Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) introduced legislation Tuesday that would require Congress to authorize decisions to locate national monuments in Montana and Idaho.

"The open-season on Montana's land is over," Rehberg said Tuesday. "This is about standing against the insufferable arrogance of Washington, D.C., that assumes an unelected bureaucrat can make better decisions from behind a desk than the folks who live and work the land in Montana. It's time to reassert the authority of the people of Montana to manage our lands."

As the Senate prepared to hold a Wednesday morning vote on a two-week spending bill, the House was preparing to move on tax and transportation bills.

Beginning at noon, the House will take up the rule to H.R. 4, which would eliminate language in last year's healthcare law requiring companies to report all goods and services transactions over $600. The rule to H.R. 4 allows for two and a half hours of debate, and a vote on the bill itself is expected Thursday.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) tore into the federal government’s practice of diverting tens of millions of dollars annually from patent fees to other purposes as “immoral” and offered an amendment to right the wrong.

“It’s immoral to take money from a specific purpose and not apply it to the purpose it was intended under the statute,” said Coburn.

Coburn said it was this diverting that has clogged up the system leaving 713,000 patents untouched. He said the fee money was intended to be used to process patents. Coburn said it currently takes 26 months before a patent officer even touches a patent after it has been filed.

“If we want to stay on top of innovation we cannot allow that process to continue,” said Coburn. “Now we are actually going to spend the patent money on patents.”

Coburn touted his amendment as the perfect antidote to the current system. 

“This is a moral response to an immoral thing we have been doing,” said Coburn.

The Senate on Wednesday will take up the House-passed bill that will fund the government until March 18. 

The House on Tuesday approved its spending measure by a 335-91 vote. The bill, which would cut $4 billion in government spending, split House Democrats. One hundred and four Democrats supported the bill while 85 of them voted no. All but six Republicans supported it.

The Senate's move is a major victory for House Republicans, who outmaneuvered Democrats on the high-profile bill.

After considering a series of amendments to the Patent Reform Act on Tuesday evening, the Senate adjourned at about 6:30 p.m. The Senate is scheduled to return at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

A small number of Republicans voted against the two-week continuing resolution (CR) on Tuesday night as a way to protest the bill's funding of last year's healthcare law, and the absence of larger cuts.

Six Republicans ended up rejecting the bill: Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Walter Jones (N.C), Steve King (Iowa), and Ron Paul (Texas). Bachmannn said her vote against the GOP bill was over healthcare.

"I agree with the need to cut spending, but I voted against the two-week CR today because it did not include language to defund ObamaCare," Bachmann said. "Over the coming years, ObamaCare will hurt our economy so defunding it must remain part of our negotiations on a CR."

In a remarkable exchange on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) attacked Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) for presenting an amendment that he said directly violated the Constitution.

Boxer’s amendment would strip members of Congress and the president of their pay in the event of a government shutdown. Article 2 of the Constitution, however, as Leahy pointed out, explicitly states that the president’s salary “shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.”

“The Constitution specifically prohibits that,” Leahy told Boxer.

Boxer countered that her staff had looked into the issue of constitutionality and concluded that the president would only be able to challenge the constitutionality of the law in court, a scenario that seems highly unlikely.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday approved two rules for bills that will be considered on the House floor Wednesday and Thursday.

The first is a rule for the Surface Transportation Act, H.R. 662, which will come up on Wednesday. The measure would fund federal transportation spending at 2010 levels. As approved, it only allows a Republican technical amendment to be in order, so Democrats will not be able to offer amendments.

The second is a rule for a bill, H.R. 4, that would repeal the IRS reporting requirement in last year's healthcare law, a requirement that both parties oppose. This is a closed rule that will not allow for any amendments, but it will allow for two and a half hours of debate that is expected to conclude on Thursday.

After the House approved a two-week spending bill on Tuesday, Republicans began a one-hour special-order discussion in opposition to the healthcare law.

House Democrats on Tuesday used debate on a short-term spending package to force a largely symbolic vote on ending tax breaks for major oil companies like Exxon and Shell.

The "motion to recommit" failed on a mostly party-line vote, but it will provide Democrats a hook to accuse Republicans of catering to “Big Oil” at a time of rising gasoline prices. Motions to recommit are a procedural mechanism that allow the minority party a chance to alter bills.

The underlying two-week spending package passed the House easily.

More than 100 Democrats joined all but six Republicans to support a two-week measure aimed at averting a government shutdown.