(Bloomberg) -- Any Washington lobbyist worth their salt knows defeat or delay of new legislation is often the most lucrative outcome for corporate clients.

By that measure, 2023 was a success, as Congress passed few new laws amid months-long battles over raising the US debt limit and avoiding a government shutdown. All that inaction translated into wins for Wall Street banks, tech giants, and pharmaceutical companies, whose profits were spared the pinch of additional regulation.

Just 22 new laws had been enacted as of Tuesday, according to the US Federal Register, versus 281 last year, when Democrats controlled Washington. Some provisions tucked into laws that did pass boosted businesses, including a well-connected pipeline.

Advocates still plan to press their causes in the new year. But the window for major legislation typically narrows as the presidential election nears, and Congress will be consumed at least through early February with trying to avert another threatened government shutdown.

Here are some of the biggest winners and losers this year in Congress:

Winners

Bankers

Big banks, Visa and Mastercard beat back bipartisan efforts to require more competition in processing credit card transactions, a move supporters forecast would have saved retailers and customers $10 billion a year or more in swipe fees paid to the financial industry. Even efforts to pass modest, bipartisan legislation clawing back the compensation of executives at failed banks following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank went nowhere.

Railroads 

The toxic railroad disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, prompted a public backlash and push for legislation imposing stricter safety standards for trains. Donald Trump and the Biden administration even lined up behind the idea, a rare point of agreement between the era’s two great political antagonists. But senior Senate Republicans including Ted Cruz opposed bipartisan safety legislation as inflexible and too costly. Cruz also wants to make it easier to transport liquefied natural gas by rail. Meanwhile, memories of the tragedy fade.

US Debtholders

Financial markets and corporate America dodged a US debt default, thanks to then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his top negotiator Patrick McHenry. The deal to raise the legal debt limit they negotiated with the Biden administration even shrank funding for IRS tax enforcement without goring corporate sacred cows.

Big Pharma

After an exceedingly rare defeat for drug companies with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, efforts stalled in the Democratic-led Senate to take more steps to slash drug prices, including expanding the IRA’s Medicare cap on insulin prices to all insurance plans.

Tech Giants

A wave of public concern over the impact of social media on youth mental health has fueled momentum for bipartisan legislation to strengthen children’s safety and privacy online. But legislation that would require social media companies to take steps to keep children safe from bullying and harassment — and from content that promotes suicide, substance abuse, eating disorders, and sexual exploitation — stalled. Another bill to block online platforms from gathering information on teenagers without their consent also has been stymied.

Equitrans Pipeline

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin secured approval of the massive Mountain Valley Pipeline from his state of West Virginia to Virginia as part of the debt-limit deal, causing the stock price of owner Equitrans Midstream Corp. to soar.

Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin finished the year gloating over Ukraine’s “heavy losses” and dwindling resources. President Joe Biden’s efforts to send more than $60 billion in fresh US aid has been delayed until at least January. The delay signals weakening resolve in the US to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia.  

China 

An internal Republican squabble scuttled bipartisan efforts to restrict outbound investment to China, and a House panel dominated by critics of Beijing hasn’t secured testimony or documents they’ve demanded from top companies. Efforts to ban TikTok also failed.

Losers

Crypto

Industry-backed legislation to regulate the crypto market as well as narrow legislation specifically on regulating stablecoins won bipartisan backing from the House Financial Services Committee, but hasn’t moved farther. A last-ditch effort by the committee’s chairman, McHenry, to attach both measures to unrelated defense legislation failed. McHenry’s counterpart in the Senate, Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown, is a crypto skeptic and said in an interview neither bill is going anywhere in the Senate.

Chipmakers

The semiconductor industry won a $52.7 billion initiative to bolster US manufacturing under the prior Democratic Congress. But House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked bipartisan efforts to speed permitting for the massive projects aided by the initiative. Still, Cruz has engaged in some hostage-taking in return, blocking a House-passed ban on cheap Russian uranium imports used by nuclear power plants. The fight will almost certainly spill over into 2024.

Cannabis Industry

The cannabis industry has been seeking access to legal banking channels the sector is blocked from by federal drug laws, even in states where marijuana is legal. Bipartisan legislation to permit the banking services cleared a Senate committee but has yet to come to vote in the Senate. It’s future is also in doubt under new House Speaker Johnson. His predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, had voted for an earlier version.

McCarthy 

McCarthy finally realized his long-time ambition to become House speaker in January, only to be chucked out by eight dissident hardliners nine months later. He’s quitting Congress and will be a private citizen again in the new year.

Fabulist-in-Chief

George Santos held onto his congressional seat for nearly a year despite being exposed as a serial liar who based his campaign for office on improbable false claims about his life story, including a pretend job with Goldman Sachs. The slender Republican majority needed his vote. But after a federal indictment and scathing ethics committee report, he was finally kicked out. He now claims to be making more money doing Cameo videos for $500 a pop than he earned on his $174,000-a-year congressional salary. Perhaps.

--With assistance from Mackenzie Hawkins, Ari Natter, Allyson Versprille, Billy House and Oma Seddiq.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.