Lawmakers return to Washington on Monday for the first time since Democrats reclaimed the House and the Senate in the midterm elections, setting up a legislative sprint before the transfer of power on Jan. 3.
Some Republicans are pushing to do as much as they can before they lose control.
Congress is scheduled to be in session for five more weeks before the end of the year — but some Republicans in both chambers are urging their colleagues to work weekends and holidays to confirm as many of President Donald Trump’s nominees and pass as much legislation as they can in the lame-duck session.
Those priorities could include sending more money to the Pentagon to replenish munitions used in the Iran war and passing a bipartisan bill to overhaul the federal permitting process.
“Let’s get everything done,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) told Fox News’s Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday. “Just stay every day — all through Christmas, all through Thanksgiving, all through New Year’s. Every day.”
Some Republicans have called for passing much of their agenda through reconciliation, a special process that would allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster as long as the legislation complies with complicated Senate budget rules. Such a bill could include funding for the Iran war, which the Pentagon says is badly needed.
But passing such a bill would take weeks of work — and lawmakers have no shortage of competing priorities.
The most urgent is to prevent a government shutdown by passing a bill before funding runs out after Dec. 11. The top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations committees hope to meet this week to start working out a deal, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Funding negotiations stalled over the summer because Democrats refused to support an increase in defense spending without a comparable rise in spending on domestic programs. With Democrats set to regain control of Congress, there is little incentive for them to take a deal weighted toward GOP priorities.
Democrats and Republicans are also working to pass the annual defense policy bill before the end of the year. Congress has passed such a bill every year since 1961, and lawmakers are loath to break the streak.
The Senate is set to take an initial procedural vote Monday on a bipartisan bill to overhaul the federal permitting process — a longtime priority for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and other senators in both parties.
“It doesn’t sound sexy or glamorous, but I’ll tell you, it’ll do more to unleash economic growth and capital investment in this country than almost anything else we can do,” Thune said late last month on WNAX, a South Dakota radio station.
For the bill to reach Trump’s desk, the House would also need to pass it. Another bipartisan priority — a sprawling agriculture policy bill — could be attached to it, Thune said.
The Senate will also vote on confirming a package of dozens of Trump administration nominees, Thune said. Senate Republicans are under pressure to confirm as many judicial nominees — who cannot be included in such a package and must be confirmed one by one — as possible while they’re still in control.
Mike Davis, the president of the Article III Project, a conservative judicial advocacy group, has urged the Senate to confirm nearly two dozen judges. Democrats confirmed 22 of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees during the lame-duck session two years ago.
“Senate Republicans either finish the judicial job now, or they leave these seats open for the left if Democrats win back the White House in 2028,” Davis wrote in a Fox News op-ed published Saturday.
The crush of competing priorities could leave Republicans with little time to take up a reconciliation bill, which would take weeks to pass.
“There’s plenty of work to do,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), the No. 4 Senate Republican, told reporters last month. “If you couple that with a massive [reconciliation bill] — that’s a big chunk.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which plays a crucial role in reconciliation, said that he is prepared to take up such a bill but that time is running short.
“Now I’m hearing from the White House they want to do one,” Johnson said last week on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.” “Well, good. This takes a lot of time and effort. We need to know what the product’s going to be. Haven’t heard.”
Passing a reconciliation bill would require both chambers to pass a budget resolution, then to take up and pass the legislation itself — a tortuous process with little room for error because Republicans could lose only a handful of votes in each chamber.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, although it will shrink next month when Sen. Jon Husted’s term expires. Husted, an Ohio Republican, was appointed last year to fill the rest of Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term but lost a special election last week to former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown. Husted’s term ends Dec. 15 under Ohio law, and Brown may be sworn in early to succeed him.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said Friday that he expects to be absent for several weeks while he undergoes rehabilitation after suffering a stroke.
Republicans’ margin is even more perilous in the House, where they can afford to lose only two votes. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) often breaks with his party, and Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Florida), who has been ill, has not voted since July.
Some House Republicans are also clamoring to do as much as possible in the time they have left.
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Florida) wrote on X that her party has less than two months “left in the majority, and we have ZERO excuses for wasting it.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Saturday urged his colleagues to pass a reconciliation bill that would cut spending, send money to the Pentagon and cut taxes, among other priorities.
“Turn things we should have finished into things we have done,” he wrote on X.
Thune has not ruled out passing a reconciliation bill. If Republicans do not pass it, the military says it will lack much of the funding it needs to restock its inventory of precision weapons depleted by the Iran war.
The Senate could find itself with an even greater workload if Supreme Court Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. or Clarence Thomas decides to retire.
Alito, 76, and Thomas, 78, are the oldest justices on the court. Alito has said he does not plan to retire, but Republicans have warned that Democrats are unlikely to confirm any Supreme Court nominee while they control the Senate and a Republican is in the White House.
The House is also set to vote as soon as this week on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. If the vote is successful, the Senate could be forced to hold a lengthy impeachment trial unless senators move to dismiss the charges.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week” that he is a “hard yes” on the impeachment resolution, which is sponsored by Massie. If every Democrat voted for the resolution, it could pass the House with only a few Republican votes or absences.
It’s not clear whether Thune will keep the Senate in session for additional days as some Republicans have demanded, but some senators were preparing even before Election Day to work through the holidays.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said he expected the lame-duck schedule to be “wall to wall.”
“I want to be pleasantly surprised rather than unpleasantly surprised,” Kaine told reporters. “I’m hoping to have a nice Thanksgiving Day and maybe a nice Thanksgiving week, but I’m assuming we’re just going to be here through the end of the year.”
Noah Robertson contributed to this report.
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