As millions of dollars flow from corporations and individuals into presidential campaigns, money also continues to influence members of Congress. In a recent two-year time frame, contributions to current House members from individuals and PACs connected to the oil and gas industry totaled nearly $12 million.

The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sought to reassure House members Tuesday that his agency has no intention of “going off in some wild new unexpected direction.” The subcommittee pressed Richard Cordray on whether the CFPB will accept existing case law that defines “unfair and deceptive” practices.

A buyer who found out after she purchased a $610,000 home that a murder-suicide occurred in it will now get the chance for a jury to determine whether that was a material defect in the house that should have been disclosed prior to the sale.

In testimony Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. criticized the “inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric” swirling around “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched gun trafficking investigation that Holder himself has repeatedly called “fundamentally flawed.”

The Legal Services Corp., the independent nonprofit corporation that provides civil legal aid to the poor, would receive $348 million for its fiscal 2012 budget under a deal House and Senate members released Tuesday. The House is slated to vote on the figure this week. The chairman of the LSC’s board of directors called the 2012 funding deal a “compromise” that will lead to further staff cuts and reduced services during a time of increasing need for legal assistance.