Big Questions
Questions the news is covering right now, each linked to the bills and Senate nominations behind it.
Data as of October 9, 2026
AIEvery Big Question's name and summary are written by AI from the public record and labeled. Nothing publishes until it passes automated checks: both languages, the record attached, no advocacy language.
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Live
Open questions before Congress, each with where its bills stand today, read from the official record.
Iran war powers
Congress has not passed an authorization for U.S. military action against Iran.
A Senate floor vote on it failed.
Government funding deadline
Federal agencies are funded through December 11, 2026, under a stopgap law.
Signed into law as Public Law 119-103.
Syria sanctions repeal
Should the United States repeal two more of its Syria sanctions laws?
Placed on the Senate calendar. It can be called up any day the Senate is in session.
Paying college athletes
On what terms should college athletes be paid?
Passed the Senate; held at the House desk.
Annual defense policy
What should defense policy be for fiscal year 2027?
Passed the House; waiting on the Senate.
Crypto oversight split between SEC and CFTC
Which federal agency should oversee crypto?
A Senate vote on it failed, and a motion to reconsider is pending, so another vote is possible.
Penny production and cash rounding
Should the law end the penny and round cash purchases to the nearest five cents?
Both chambers have passed it in the same form.
7 live Big Questions today (never more than 8).
How Big Questions get made
A Big Question opens only when something real before Congress meets every rule below. Automated gates check that before it publishes.
- Something still moving: at least one tracked bill or Senate nomination that has not reached its end. The question has to still be one a call can affect.
- A recent signal: in the last 45 days it appeared on a government schedule or in a chamber's own floor proceedings (a floor vote, a motion or filing on the floor, the week's bill list, Congress.gov's most-viewed, the ), or in press coverage from at least two outlets of differing leanings.
- A callable action: the page and the call script already work. A bill qualifies while a decision on it is still open. A nomination qualifies only when the Senate’s record carries the description sentence its script is drafted from. The gate rejects one that doesn’t.
- A neutral name: a description of the disagreement either side would recognize as fair, never one side's own label for it.