In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State (IS) and the diplomatic dance with Iran dominated Congress while the civil war in Syria entered its fourth year.

The White House pulled out all the stops early in the year to prevent lawmakers from passing new sanctions legislation that the administration worried could scupper the nuclear talks. Labeling sanctions champions as warmongers may have bought negotiators some time, but their failure to reach a deal empowers the incoming Republican Senate to put its stamp on the talks in 2015.

Worries that Iran was hoodwinking the international community were overshadowed in June by reports that a previously little-known insurgent group had routed the Iraqi army and taken Mosul. While the Obama administration scrambled to build an international coalition to “degrade and defeat” IS, Congress approved a $5 billion plan to bomb militants and train and equip Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Lawmakers also began debate on a new war authorization for Iraq and Syria, but punted off a vote until next year.

Congress also took the first concrete step to empower the so-called moderate Syrian opposition battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces by approving a $500 million Pentagon plan to train and equip vetted rebels in its year-end spending bill. The vote follows months of increasingly strident criticism of the Obama administration’s reluctance to get involved in the civil war, but comes with one major caveat: The rebels are meant to focus on IS, not Assad.