Pope Francis challenged lawmakers to take “courageous actions” to tackle climate change on Thursday, but the partisan fight in Congress on the environment barely paused. Hours after the Popemobile departed Thursday morning, House Republicans took up a bill that would block the government from measuring the carbon impact of construction projects, part of a GOP strategy to throttle President Barack Obama’s green agenda and dim hopes for reaching a global agreement on climate change later this year. --Andrew Restuccia and Darren Goode, Politico, 24 September 2015