The Republican-led House has agreed to replace deep budget cuts scheduled to hit the Pentagon in January with a series of reductions in funding for food stamps, Medicaid and regulation of the financial sector.

The Senate’s top Democrat paid tribute to long-time Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Indiana) on the Senate floor Thursday, offering the kind words in the midst of a blast at the tea party right that ousted the six-term senator in a primary Tuesday.

The House Ethics Committee said Wednesday that it continues to review allegations against Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) but doesn’t currently plan to launch a full-scale investigation into charges that he reimbursed employees for campaign donations.

In it, he says, “I suffered a stroke on the 21st of January and thanks to the doctors, nurses of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I’m walking again, leading to my hope to climb the 45 steps that my staff counted from the parking lot to the Senate front door to fight for the people of Illinois.”

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) declined to take definitive stances on several campaign questions asked of him Wednesday, but when asked how Romney might help GOP candidates this year, he said “I know of not one Republican candidate that would not appear publicly with Mitt Romney and I know many Democrats that don’t even want to be in the same city, forget the same stage, with President Obama.”

Within minutes of his loss, several politicians issued tributes to the 35-year member of the Senate. President Obama, a former Senate colleague of Lugar, issued a statement. But we were most struck by comments by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has served alongside Lugar on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since the 1980s.

The House voted Wednesday to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for another three years, permitting the agency to continue providing hundreds of millions of dollars in trade assistance to U.S. firms.