By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Congress adjourned for the winter holidays Dec. 20, ending a session Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) summarized on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" as, "Well, we've been able to accomplish quite a bit, but not very much, certainly not as much as I wanted to. I'm kind of frustrated, like the American people. ... We found a blockage on nearly everything we tried."

According to the Library of Congress, the 110th Congress has passed 155 bills this year -- several of lasting significance.

In the last two weeks of the session, a new energy bill raised automobile fuel-efficiency standards for the fi rst time in a generation. A higher-education overhaul put a college education within reach financially for more Americans, in part by increasing the size of Pell grants.

Democrats fulfilled two campaign promises by raising the minimum wage and strengthening ethics legislation.

Last week, President Bush signed the "omnibus" appropriations bill, a $555 billion whopper that funds most federal government operations in fiscal 2008, ends a showdown between the White House and Congress over the budget -- and sends plenty of pet-project money to the districts of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

In the final hours of the session, both the Senate and the House passed a bill strengthening state recordkeeping and reporting requirements, so people with adjudicated mental health problems won't slip past laws that ban them from buying guns. After languishing for more than five years, the measure took on new signifi cance after the Virginia Tech shootings, becoming a model of the bipartisanship lawmakers aspire to.

That's six new laws. Of the rest, more than one-third renamed post offices, courthouses and other edifices, such as the newly redesignated Clifford Davis and Odell Horton Federal Building at 167 N. Main St. in Memphis.

Many new laws addressed errors or closed gaps in past legislation. Others settled long-standing disputes and some defied easy explanation. A sampling follows.

H.R. 475: In the aftermath of news that Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) had sent sexually inappropriate online messages to congressional pages, Congress changed the composition of the board overseeing the page program, adding one board member representing parents and one representing former pages.

H.R. 137: In a move that appeared to anticipate the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007 imposed heavier fines and prison terms for people who organize or promote animal fighting ventures.

H.R. 50: Sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the measure extends and increases the budget for enforcing the African Elephant Conservation Act and the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994, and repeals the requirement that the secretary of the interior notify countries about pending elephant, rhino and tiger conservation projects.

H.R. 4343: The Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act raises commercial airline pilots' mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65.

S. 1537: Authorizes the secretary of the Senate to transfer proceeds from the sale of holiday ornaments from the Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund to the Senate Employee Child Care Center to help pay for scholarships, educational supplies and equipment.

H.R. 692: This measure authorizes the governor of a state, territory or U.S. possession to order that the American flag be flown at half-staff there after the death of an active-duty member of the armed forces who was from that jurisdiction.

H.J. RES. 43: Increases the nation's public debt limit from $8.9 trillion to $9.8 trillion.

S. 2106: Allows families of 9/11 victims who opted out of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 to pursue civil suits in any federal jurisdiction. The law reverses a provision that limited subpoena authority to within 100 miles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

H.R. 3703: Revises the requirement that all vending machines on federal property and military bases be able to accept and dispense $1 coins. Of particular concern to Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) was the requirement that soda machines dispense $1 coins, when they don't accept bills greater than $1.

Al Kamen is away. In the Loop will resume when he returns.