The 113th Congress continues the trend in a gradual increase in religious diversity that is mirroring trends in the country as a whole.

After coming to a slow crawl on the fiscal deal, this Congress will leave a legacy of the fewest enacted laws than any since 1947; Jonathan Allen writes that the best the 112th Congress has been able to do is "avert the worst."

Politico provides a guide to the dance of getting to a deal on the fiscal cliff.

Joseph Lieberman's retirement will impact the clout of the bipartisan trio, which included Senators Lieberman, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham, that once dominated congressional debate on foreign policy, says the New York Times.

Gregory Bovt writes that Russia is a low priority on the list of foreign policy issues for both Democratic and Republican candidates and advises avoiding excessive anti-Russian or anti-U.S. rhetoric from both sides.

"North Korea's impending nuclear test is just the latest illustration of Barack Obama's weakness and naiveté abroad," writes special advisor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, Richard Williamson, who served in the Reagan White House as an assistant to the president in the 1980s and as the president's special envoy to Sudan in the 2000s.

This Congressional Research Service report discusses policy issues regarding military-to-military contacts with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and provides a record of major contacts and crises since 1993.

In his piece for The New Yorker, James Surowiecki argues that instead of figuring out ways to raise the debt ceiling, Congress should simply go ahead and abolish it.

The current level of political dysfunction and ideological polarization in Congress is beyond the norm. A broken legislative branch risks plunging the United States into an economic catastrophe and damaging the nation's global standing, writes Norman Ornstein.

John Dickerson of Slate describes the redemption of a debt ceiling "grand bargain" between President Obama and congressional Republicans from the ash-heaps of legislative gridlock.

Marc Goldwein of the New America Foundation endorses the bipartisan "Gang of Six" debt deal, while warning that a failure to execute its recommendations properly could deepen economic woes.

Manu Raju of Politico documents Tom Coburn's sudden return to the Senate's Gang of Six in the midst of trying talks on deficit reduction and the debt ceiling.

This analysis outlines eight reasons why the "Theory of Inevitable Compromise"--that Republicans and Democrats will ultimately hammer out a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling ahead of August 2--may not hold true in this instance.

The Economist argues that the Republicans are playing a cynical political game with hugely high economic stakes as they cling to the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from a higher tax take.

In this piece for Foreign Policy, Flynt Leverett, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and Hillary Mann Leverett, a professor at American University, write that American policy in the Middle East is no better under the Obama administration than it was under the Bush administration.

NASA's human spaceflight ventures may be fading away due to continued underfunding, despite perennial efforts by some members of Congress and the science community, reports Keith Perine.

As President Barack Obama nears the halfway point in his four-year term, PolitiFact.com compiled a tally of campaign promises and found that he kept many more vows than he broke. Writing for Reuters, Alister Bull, highlights the larger promises.

Writing for the National Journal, four expert environmental bloggers outline what issues they expect President Obama to discuss, and what issues he should discuss.