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This week we look at happenings in Congress wistfully, wiping a tear after Bob Dole's announcement that he will surrender his Senate seat to concentrate on campaigning for the presidency against Bill Clinton. Dole, a former Congressman and chairman of the Republican National Committee, has served as a Kansas Senator for 27 years. He will step down on or before June 11. In the meantime, life goes on atop Capitol Hill. Here are some more hot issues before the Congress.

Nuts and Bolts: Congressional Republicans threw a fit at last month's revelation that the Clinton administration knowingly allowed Iranian arms to be supplied to Bosnian Muslims in violation of a U.S. supported international arms embargo against the former Yugoslavia. The administration never took any specific action to provide the arms. Rather, a U.S. official told Croatia's president in the spring of 1994 that the U.S. would not oppose or prevent the shipment of Iranian arms through Croatia into neighboring Bosnia. According to a Los Angeles Times report, the decision was made by Clinton himself in a meeting aboard Air Force One with National Security Advisor Anthony Lake. Republicans charge that Clinton was "duplicitous" and misled the Congress, and that he foolishly helped strengthen the hand of Iran, a major U.S. enemy.

Status: On May 8, the House voted 224-187 to create a special subcommittee to investigate the Clinton administration's role in allowing the Iranian arms shipment. The committee has been given a $1 million budget for a six months investigation. The panel, a subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, will be composed of five Republicans and three Democrats, and will be chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-IL. At least two other committees in both the House and Senate will hold hearings on the matter.

Inside Scoop: Talk about partisanship. The vote for an investigation was supported by just three Democrats, and the committee's timeline expires the day before Election Day. Republicans have been eager to cast this episode as a replay of the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration, and hope to hammer yet another scandal theme home during the summer Presidential campaign season. Some prominent Democrats, however, like Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-NE, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have also been sharply critical of the President. The administration has countered that news accounts published as early as 1994 indicating that the Iranian weapons were reaching Bosnia were not met with Congressional outcry, and that Bob Dole led the passage that year of a Congressional resolution calling for an end to the embargo.

Nuts and Bolts: What to do with deadly radioactive waste that will remain toxic for 10,000 years? Space to store what now amounts to some 20,000 tons of highly radioactive material is running out at nuclear plants across the country. Congress is trying to pass a bill that would put nuclear waste in the care of the federal government, and create a single waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. The bill only provides for a temporary site, but Yucca Mountain is currently the only site being studied for long-term storage, and some opponents of the measure say Yucca would become a de facto permanent repository. Others warn that the dangers of earthquake, volcanic eruption or simple leakage through water make the site too unsafe for storage.

Status: The House Commerce Committee approved a measure in August that would open a storage site at Yucca Mountain by 1998. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed a similar bill in March. The Clinton administration has hinted at a possible veto if the bill is passed.

Inside Scoop: This is a textbook case of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard!) politics. Members of Congress who have nuclear waste building up in their states are eager to move it away to a central storage site. The nuclear power industry is also pushing hard to have the stuff off its hands. But proponents are encountering fierce resistance from Nevada's two Democratic Senators, Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, who don't much want the stuff in their state either. And a Congressionally-appointed advisory panel found in March that there would not be an immediate need to build a central storage site until 2010. Key proponents of the legislation include Sens. Larry Craig, R-ID, and J. Bennett Johnston, D-LA.

Nuts and Bolts: As gambling continues to grow throughout America, Congress has moved to create a national commission to investigate the $40 billion-dollar-a-year casino industry. The commission would study the government's gambling policies, the relationship between gambling and crime and problem gambling. There is general support for creating a commission, but bitter dispute over whether it should have power to subpoena witnesses and records from the industry. Opponents of subpoena power say the commission should only be able to request that Congress issue a subpoena.

Status: Earlier this month the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee passed a version of the bill. The House unanimously approved a similar version in March, but it was stalled in the Senate. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week. President Clinton has expressed his support.

Inside Scoop: Again, Nevada's Senators, Reid and Bryan, are on the warpath. They are adamant that the commission not have the power to subpoena (and are supported by House Speaker Newt Gingrich). This time they face opposition from an unlikely coalition of liberals -- who consider gambling a rip-off and feel the industry preys on problem gamblers -- and conservative groups, including the Christian Coalition, who argue that gambling and its surrounding culture undermines social values. To be sure, the industry has its own mighty allies outside of Congress. The American Gaming Association, which has lobbied vigorously to strip the commission's subpoena power, is headed by former National Republican Committee chairman Frank Farenkopf. Supporters of the commission fear that members may still strip its subpoena power during a House-Senate conference.