While one president is on his way out and the other is on his way in, Congress is busily moving ahead with legislation. The Democrats want to have an expanded child health care program and a stimulus package all ready for Obama to sign the moment he takes office. Then there are the ongoing confirmation hearings and the man who would be Treasury Secretary hit a snag. For more we go to our man in Washington, Todd Zwillich, reporter for Capitol News Connection.

The amount allocated to transportation and infrastructure in President-elect Obama's proposed economic stimulus bill is being crowded out by tax cuts and other measures…much to the dismay of transportation advocates. Why are transportation and infrastructure disappearing? Since Encyclopedia Brown's not available, we turn to The Takeaway’s Andrea Bernstein who spent this week in Washington investigating at the annual conference of the Transportation Research Board.

An internal Justice Department report released yesterday found that a former senior official routinely used an ideological litmus test in filling what were supposed to be apolitical posts, and then lied to a Congressional panel investigating the practice. Slate Senior Legal Correspondent Dahlia Lithwick joins us to examine why the official won't be prosecuted, and looks at the larger trend of not holding Bush Administration officials accountable.

Lebanese officials deny they are firing rockets into Israel, but someone is and Israel responded to the attacks with shell fire. This is the second cross-border exchange with Lebanon since Israel launched their Gaza offensive. Continued struggles may ignite a second front for Israel's military. For more on this situation, we turn to Mike Sargent, who is in Jerusalem covering the story for our partner the BBC.

Israel moves into Gaza City. Watch courtesy of AP/Youtube.

As the crisis in Gaza continues, the world seeks diplomatic solutions for a decades old conflict. As Israel intensifies its hunt for Hamas, the international community pleas for peace, and protests have erupted around the world. And with a certain inauguration happening next week, it is a tough time to be an Israeli diplomat. Ambassador Daniel Carmon is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations he joins us this morning for his take on Gaza.

The United Nations has called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Remember way back when Congress handed out $350 billion to bailout the financial services industry? Well people are starting to wonder where that money went. New York Times reporter, Eric Lipton, has been following the billions of dollars that was given out to banks and lending institutions across the nation and finds that a lot of banks are just holding on to their funds. He joins us now, hot on the trail of all that money.

Read Eric Lipton's article, In Michigan, Bank Lends Little of Its Bailout Funds, in today's New York Times

Despite a massive bailout back in November, giant financial services conglomerate Citigroup is considering radical measures to save itself. The company is likely to sell off its brokerage unit to Morgan Stanley, and may shed other parts of its business as well. Newsweek Senior Editor Dan Gross joins us with a look at what the shrinking of Citigroup says about our economy now and in the future.

There’s never a dull moment in Illinois State Politics. Today, Governor Rod Blagojevich will preside over the swearing in of the very same state senators that will later this month decide whether or not to remove him from office. The Takeaway talks to Amanda Vinicky, a statehouse reporter for Illinois Public Radio.

On February 10th a controversial new consumer product law goes into effect. It requires manufacturers of goods aimed at children under the age of 12 to test their products for lead. It also forbids retailers to sell goods with unacceptable levels of lead. While that is certainly well-intentioned, small business owners say they don’t have the money to test their products. They worry the law, which is meant to protect children, will actually put them out of business. The Takeaway talks to Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Marilyn Seitz, owner of the not-for-profit Pennyworth Thrift Shop in Silver Spring, Maryland, for their take on the situation.

While Detroit is treading water to save its future, there's an importance piece to its ability to float: the unions. Auto workers, the backbone of the industry, are trying to walk the line between earning a living wage and earning a wage at all. They are in the tough position of having to negotiate with the automakers about salaries, benefits, and pensions against the backdrop of a flailing indusry. With the bailout deadline of March 31st looming, we turn to Peter Morici, professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, joins us to discuss wages at U.S. car companies versus their counterparts at Japanese car factories here in America.

Currently Lisa Jackson is the Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, but hopefully next week she will become the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. What lies in store for her in this role, especially since President-elect Obama is creating new environmental positions in his administration? With a new energy czar on staff, will the role of the EPA be diminished? Who better to answer these questions than Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration?

For on President-elect Obama's cabinet picks, check out our handy guide.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, is calling for an immediate halt to the fighting in Gaza. He says that intense negotiations between Hamas, Israel, and the global community are needed to end the violence in Gaza. He began a week-long trip to the region to promote his plans for peace after nineteen days of violence in Gaza where an Israeli campaign to end Hamas rocket fire has killed over 900 Palestinians. The Secretary General started his trip in Egypt and we are joined by the BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi in Cairo.

Five years ago, then-General Eric Shinseki made headlines for clashing with the Bush administration on Iraq war policy. His now-famous statement on the numbers of soldiers required for the Iraq was belittled and eventually he was ousted over it. Fast forward to today, where he's expected to have a smooth Senate confirmation hearing in his bid to lead the Veterans Affairs Department under Barack Obama. For more, we go to Larry Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration.