While the 2010 midterm elections swept in a significant Republican majority in the House and a larger Republican minority in the Senate, Congress will face a great deal of important fiscal legislation that it must address before the newly elected members begin their terms in 2011. With annual appropriations bills and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts pending in the upcoming lame-duck session, the focus will be on the Republican minority in the Senate and whether it decides to block key legislation or work with Democrats to address unfinished business.

With the GOP winning control of the House on Nov. 2, Republican members of House oversight committees are poised to determine how the lower chamber of Congress uses its investigatory powers for the next two years. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the likely chairman-to-be of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has released what his website calls "a blueprint" for oversight of the executive branch, and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) released a document shortly after the elections calling for greater congressional oversight overall. With plenty of contracting issues that remain unexamined or in need of further investigation, what will this shift mean for congressional oversight of government contracting in the next Congress?

On Nov. 4, President Obama signed a new executive order on controlled unclassified information (CUI), reforming the system of safeguarding information that is not classified but is still considered "sensitive." Previous practices for handling CUI stymied public access and inhibited information sharing inside government. The new order has been praised by numerous government openness advocates.

After more than three years of development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to complete a strategic plan for its library network or to inventory the network’s holdings, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The Bush administration controversially moved to close several agency libraries, but opposition from Congress and the public pushed EPA to reverse course and reopen the libraries. However, the GAO report makes clear that additional steps are needed to ensure the library network's valuable holdings are genuinely accessible to the public.

Facing a Republican majority in the House and a slimmer Democratic majority in the Senate, President Obama and administrative agencies may increasingly turn toward regulation to accomplish policy goals. In contrast, new lawmakers and congressional leaders vow to use their power to roll back regulations, cut spending, and shrink the size of government.