The Senate voted 99-0 on Wednesday on a resolution that calls for strengthening U.S. and international sanctions against Iran.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced the resolution, which would reaffirm the United States’ support for Israel and recognizes the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the West. 

A key House panel on Wednesday approved new sanctions on Iran.

The joint effort from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) has 338 co-sponsors – more than three-quarters of the House – a clear sign of bipartisan impatience on Capitol Hill with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. The vote comes on the same day the Senate is preparing to vote on a resolution calling on the Obama administration to fully implement existing sanctions. 

“Without question, as long as Iran is determined to keep its centrifuges spinning and its nuclear program advancing, we are prepared to increase the costs to the regime of doing so,” Royce said in a statement after the vote. “While Tehran stonewalls international inspectors, their total number of installed centrifuges has increased by 85 percent since October 2011. The bipartisan legislation this committee passed today is the strong action we need to cripple this regime and prevent a nuclear Tehran.”

A deal between Issa and Pickering will allow the diplomat to appear for a transcribed interview.

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a 2014 Homeland Security funding bill with a bipartisan voice vote. The bill is expected on the House floor in June. 

In a surprise development, the committee approved an amendment from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), which would effectively end immigration from Brazil.

The provision was included in order to pressure Brazil to extradite Brazilian-born Claudia Hoerig to the United States for trial in the murder of her husband, Air Force Major Karl Hoerig. The Ryan amendment does not affect travel visas or visas for temporary workers, an aide said. 

It was passed despite urgings from Homeland subcommittee Chairman John Carter (R-Texas) and ranking member David Price (D-N.C.) that it would have far-reaching implications.  The text of the amendment withholds all funding from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process any immigration visa request for a Brazilian national.

"Major Hoerig’s killer must be returned to the United States to stand trial and we must send a message to Brazil that their conduct won’t be tolerated. This is only going to get more painful for Government of Brazil until Claudia Hoerig is extradited," Ryan said after the vote. 

Overall the bill increases funding for the Department of Homeland Security, compared to the level it is operating under after the March 1 sequestration cuts went into effect.

The $38.9 billion funding level is approximately $981 million above the current budget, but a cut of $618 million from the pre-sequester level. 

During the markup, Democrats once again tried to attach an amendment that would replace the 2013 sequester and lower 2014 overall budget cap with other deficit savings. 

Rice merely gave the “best estimate” from the intelligence community about what happened in Benghazi, according to Rep. Adam Schiff.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced legislation Wednesday requiring the Obama administration to work with foreign leaders and civil society to rid the Middle East and North Africa of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The Next Generation Cooperative Threat Reduction Act authorizes $30 million a year in new funding for expanded training, professional networking and engagement with civil society, as well as tighter export and border controls. It's modeled after the 1990s-era effort from former Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) that helped deactivate more than 13,000 nuclear warheads and 40,000 metric tons of chemical weapons from countries of the former Soviet Union.

“Nowhere is the proliferation challenge more glaring than in the countries of the Middle East and Africa, where well-connected terrorist groups operate amidst political instability,” Shaheen, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations panels, said in a statement. “In addition, a growing collection of unsecured conventional and possible WMD-related weapons and materials have created a danger we cannot ignore.”

A bill to arm the Syrian opposition cleared its first legislative hurdle, easily passing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

A staffer declined to comment as to how soon that U.S. special operations team could come before the oversight subcommittee.

The bipartisan delegation will be led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).