It was, of course, a busy week in Congress this week, between final passage of a deal averting the so-called fiscal cliff--which included a one-year extension of emergency unemployment insurance benefits--and the beginning of the 113^th Congress.

Committee assignments have been made, new members have been sworn in, photos have been taken. After President Obama's inauguration on Jan. 21, things will really start to heat up on the Hill.

It's widely expected that much of the debate in the House and Senate in the coming weeks and months will be over taxes and government spending, especially since the deal averting the fiscal cliff only delayed by two months the automatic deep spending cuts that were set to kick in at the beginning of the year.

Although it's uncertain what labor and employment legislation might be coming up this year, it's a good bet that immigration will be on the table. Capitol Hill lawmakers and the president have both mentioned it as a priority, and one union leader I talked to this week mentioned it too. To many Democrats, it's imperative that a path to citizenship, and not just lesser measures like permanent residency or deferred action, be included in any package.

Various interest groups are also releasing documents of policy changes they'd like to see. For example, the National Association of Manufacturers wants to "roll back" certain administrative actions by the National Labor Relations Board that NAM says "promote adversarial employee relations."

Meanwhile, The National Employment Law Project, a workers' advocacy group, is calling for additional spending on infrastructure improvements, stepped up enforcement of employment law, and an increase in the minimum wage.

So the big question: will any of the policy ideas floating around out there translate into meaningful legislation? We'll find out over the coming months.