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Guns, immigration, fiscal issues emerge as top priorities for Obama, new Congress
By Joseph Weber
1/1/2013
After an election year in which legislative business practically ground to a halt, Congress is poised to make up for lost time in 2013.
The new Congress will begin its next session with an agenda expected to focus largely on issues that re-emerged over the past several weeks and months, with gun legislation and immigration reform near the top.
Though fiscal issues will remain a priority, how much work lawmakers put into them depends on whether, or to what extent, President Obama and congressional Republicans resolve the fiscal crisis in the closing days of this session.
A basic deal to prevent some of the $600 billion mix of tax increases and automatic spending cuts from kicking in Jan. 1 would still leave the 113th Congress to address debt ceiling and tax code issues.
But in the near term, immigration legislation appears to be high on the docket in the next Congress and second Obama administration term.
Washington has tried for years to change the country's immigration policy -- to strengthen border security and stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S.; to reform the visa system for the benefit of those legal immigrants following the rules; and figure out how to address the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
(Excerpt)
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Guns, immigration, fiscal issues emerge as top priorities for Obama, new Congress | Fox News
