Congress is turning its attention to the terror threat from Europe following last month's deadly Islamic State (IS) attack in Paris.

After efforts to freeze refugee admissions from Syria and Iraq caused a backlash from the Obama administration and the foreign policy establishment, lawmakers in the House and Senate are now revisiting the visa waiver program with 38 mostly European countries. The House is slated to vote Dec. 8 on legislation from Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., chairwoman of the Homeland Security border security panel, that would suspend uncooperative countries and exclude people who have traveled to Iraq or Syria over the past five years.

"As Americans, we live in a free and open society, and terrorists are looking for any and every opportunity to exploit those freedoms and use them against us, so we need to think clearly," Miller said in this week's Republican address. "And clearly, we have a major weakness in our visa-waiver program — a glaring hole that we have to close."

The following day, the Senate Homeland Security panel will host a roundtable on ways to strengthen the program with officials from the State and Homeland Security departments.