With House Republicans unable to agree on a budget extension, attention is shifting to an expected vote on cutting $40 billion over 10 years from the food stamp program. That's twice the reduction offered by Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas in June, and 20 times more than the Democrat-led Senate has proposed.
Backers of the bill say $20 billion would be saved by requiring people receiving food stamps to work or look for work. Lucas has said he doesn't think such a requirement would prove practical or efficient, given the current labor market.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia has threatened to cancel the recess scheduled for the last week of September if House Republicans don't agree on a continuing resolution by the end of this week. The current budget authorization expires on Sept. 30.
The Senate is expected to be quiet by comparison, with work continuing on an energy bill.
Foul on Inhofe: FactCheck.org blew a whistle on U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe for the use - or misuse - of a quote by Gen. Martin Dempsey.
FactCheck, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said Inhofe has been misquoting Dempsey on the United States' ability to launch a missile strike on Syria.
Inhofe has said on several occasions that Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supports Inhofe's position that the U.S. military is so "degraded" it could not carry out such a strike. He has quoted Dempsey as saying, "Our military force is so degraded and unready, it would be immoral to use force."
FactCheck ruled that Inhofe was quoting Dempsey out of context.
Dempsey "was not talking about the current state of the U.S. military," FactCheck wrote on Thursday. It says the quote used by Inhofe is from a Feb. 12 Senate hearing on the impact of sequestration.
"None of us walk away or run away from a crisis or a fight," Dempsey said in response to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham. "But I will tell you personally if ever the force is so degraded and so unready and then we are asked to use it, it would be immoral to use the force unless it is well-trained, well-led and well-equipped."
Responding to another question from Graham, Dempsey said, "We are on that path."
On Monday, speaking to the House Armed Services Committee, Dempsey said a missile strike on Syria is "well within our capability."
Homeland insecurity: U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn used the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington to review the failings of the Department of Homeland Security.
Established in the wake of the attacks, Homeland Security has come under criticism for its size and reach - and, in Coburn's view, ineffectiveness.
On Wednesday, Coburn released a list of "10 Challenges" he said the department should address. These include mission creep, insufficient accountability, inefficiency and a general lack of coordination.
By another name: The Defense Department made some changes in its new policy regarding leave for same-sex couples to marry, but not enough to satisfy Inhofe.
Syndicated military columnist Tom Philpott reported on Thursday that Inhofe called the changes disappointing and said they "did not fix the issue at hand."
Inhofe is upset because the Defense Department began allowing uncharged leave for same-sex couples to marry if they were stationed more than 100 miles from a state where such unions are legal. Inhofe has said the leave is unfair because it is not given to heterosexual couples.
Last week Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the policy had been changed so that any member wishing to marry and posted more than 100 miles from a place he or she can do so legally can be granted an "administrative absence" rather than leave.
Inhofe said the change in terminology has no practical meaning because heterosexual couples can be married anywhere.
Dots and dashes: Second District Congressman Markwayne Mullin announced his support for the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, which authorizes spending for the Army Corps of Engineers. The bill is important to eastern Oklahoma because it includes funding for maintenance of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. A markup by the House Transportation and Water Resources Committee, of which Mullin is a member, is expected this week. ... Citing a Government Accountability Office report, Coburn criticized what he said is $320 million in duplicative annual spending on information technology. All told, the federal governments spends $82 billion a year on IT. ... Coburn introduced legislation requiring federal employees to turn off the lights when they leave work each day.
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The convenience store chain was the sole distributor of the 50-cent stickers residents were required to place on bags of extra yard waste.
The plaintiff alleged in a lawsuit that he was made to perform pushups to avoid a ticket or jail.
