Eye on Congress

Congress hasn't passed a major energy bill in more than a decade. But the way the year-end tax and spending deal lifted an oil export ban and extended wind and solar tax credits has some in Washington hoping for more, even in an election year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress cleared most pressing issues off its decks by striking a budget deal and passing a huge tax and spending package at the end of 2015. The question is whether the House and Senate in 2016 will amplify election year messaging or whether lawmakers and the White House come together to strike deals on other matters.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CQ Now introduces you to a very special piece of American history at the Library of Congress:the Bay Psalm Book, printed in 1640 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is the first book printed in what is now the United States and it helped shape everything from religious expression to the political culture in the 13 colonies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A tumultuous and unusually productive year for Congress ended quietly on Dec. 18 with the passage of a $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running and a package of tax breaks for businesses and individuals worth about $680 billion. Everyone in Washington had some flesh in the game, and the hundreds of pages of bill text revealed many winners and losers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 457-mile rail route from Washington to Boston is the busiest in the country, connecting four of the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas and serving about a fifth of the U.S. economy. It's also the most bureaucratically tangled, with eight commuter lines, four freight railroads and Amtrak all sharing the same space. That's a sure-fire recipe for jurisdictional arguments over how to spend the $20 billion it takes to keep the corridor running. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A House bill that would require warrants for government access to personal and business emails attracted more than 300 co-sponsors as well as support from technology giants like Google. But the measure has stalled over concerns from law enforcement and federal agencies that want exceptions to the requirement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The House and Senate couldn't finish their legislative year by a self-imposed Dec. 11 deadline. That means a handful of lawmakers will have to make crucial decisions about spending and taxes while a temporary funding patch winds down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A two-week United Nations conference in Paris on climate change is coming to a close, and while the agreements that emerge carry moral and political weight, they won’t be legally binding. That’s just fine with Republicans in Congress, who oppose participating in international pacts to limit carbon emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Environmental Protection Agency tried to strike a compromise setting mandates for the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels next year. But the balancing act has instead angered both supporters and opponents of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, who are expected to file lawsuits when the rules are printed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The days are ticking down on the legislative calendar and the big unresolved business in Congress is a giant spending bill that’s supposed to keep government agencies running in 2016. Republicans and Democrats are predictably far apart on the details, adding the possibility of a December shutdown to a year that’s already seen its share of drama. Could battles over environmental regulations keep Congress in for Christmas?   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As many as 700,000 drones could be sold to American consumers this holiday season. But those unmanned aircraft will be taking to the skies on Christmas morning just as federal officials eye a new registration system as part of plans to tighten their grip on drone fliers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  Congress is looking at whether psychiatric hospitals can bill the Medicaid program to care for adults — a move that signals a potential shift in lawmakers' views about institutionalizing people with serious mental diseases and one that could add tens of billions of dollars in spending over a decade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

School administrators and other education groups could get an early Christmas gift if Congress overhauls the controversial 2002 education law known as No Child Left Behind. Derided over its standardized tests and accountability measures, the law could be reshaped by a Congress that's more eager to cut deals on elementary and secondary school accountability and shift responsibility to the states. The legislative text of the measure looking to replace the No Child Left Behind law was released November 30. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New House Speaker Paul Ryan’s grace period with his fractious House Republican caucus could run out next year, when demands for ideological purity collide with the reality of legislative give-and-take. His message for the short run is stressing unity and passing bills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress appears unlikely to pursue a new authorization for use of military force against the Islamic State. Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided over what it should say, and many lawmakers see little to gain from taking a politically charged war vote. That suits the Obama administration, which has relied on a 2001 authorization to launch strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Food and Drug Administration is trying to be more proactive combating food-borne illness. But there are questions about whether it has the money to accomplish the job, or whether the agency will have to lean heavily on outside parties, including the food industry, to be the enforcers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A mild-mannered Republican congressman from Southern California unwittingly helped torpedo the annual appropriations process this summer, by triggering a debate over display of the Confederate flag. Now, he and others in the GOP have to pull off a balancing act, steering a spending plan through a Congress intent on challenging President Obama's environmental agenda.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A battle between two Arizona tribes over Indian casinos is offering proof of how the Jack Abramoff scandal that rocked K Street, Congress and Indian country a decade ago hasn't ruined the lucrative business of representing Native American interests before Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An estimated $60 billion worth of biotechnology drugs will lose patent protection next year and the Food and Drug Administration and the government’s top consumer watchdog agency can’t seem to agree on what to name cheaper, copycat versions. That could complicate efforts to hold down medical spending.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ways & Mens Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas Talks to CQ Roll Call About Overhauling the Corporate Tax Code and a National Sales Tax.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices