Lawmakers Hope for Calm After the Storm on Capitol Hill

With a new speaker in the House and a major budget-and-debt deal completed, lawmakers hope they are entering a welcome period of calm on Capitol Hill.

But some things haven't changed.

The three dozen or so conservative hard-liners in the House who pushed out former Speaker John Boehner haven't gone anywhere. Most of them ended up supporting newly elected Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, but will be watching closely to make sure he delivers.

And the budget-and-debt deal approved by Congress this past week does not take all fiscal clashes off the table.

Lawmakers still must fill in the details and have until Dec. 11 to pass a package of spending bills for 2016. It's an exercise that's ripe for conflict.