The exterior of the U.S. Capitol after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to avert a government shutdown before the September 1, 2026 midterm elections.
Aaron Schwartz | Reuters
The House and Senate are scheduled to return to Washington on Monday with a crowded legislative agenda in the final weeks before the 119th Congress adjourns.
Congress must act quickly to extend federal funding that expires on December 11th. Lawmakers would need to pass the National Defense Authorization Act and could take on ambitious proposals such as construction permit packages and legislation regulating name, image and likeness rules in college sports.
Work begins under new power relations. Returns to the Capitol have dwindled for Republican lawmakers who suffered significant losses in this week’s midterm elections. Democrats will have a supermajority in the House, winning at least 255 of the 435 seats, and could gain up to 56 seats in the Senate.
With majorities in both chambers looming, Democrats will have little incentive to break the deal with Republicans.
government funding
The most pressing concern facing lawmakers upon their return is funding the government. Current funding expires on December 11th. To avoid a government shutdown, Congress would need to pass a continuing resolution or a series of year-round spending bills to maintain current spending levels.
Appropriations bills and continuing resolutions require a bipartisan majority vote with the Senate filibuster threshold of 60 votes. It is unlikely that Democrats will negotiate a full year of government funding before the new Congress is sworn in, given that they will soon have supermajorities in both chambers and could use that to leverage concessions from the White House.
“This former kindergarten teacher is going to teach President Trump a simple lesson: The power of the wallet belongs to Congress!” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the appropriations committee presumptive chair, said on the X-Post on Tuesday, the day the election results were announced. “It’s not Trump’s money. It’s taxpayer money that belongs to the American people.”
Adding a further wrinkle to the funding drive is the election loss of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and one of the “four corners” of spending negotiations. Collins lost reelection to Democrat Troy Jackson, ending his five-term Senate career.
debt ceiling
Some lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Kevin Cramer, are urging Congress to raise the debt ceiling before Republicans lose control.
In September, the federal debt reached $40 trillion for the first time, reaching the $41.1 trillion cap included in the Republicans’ Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025, known as “The One Big Beautiful Bill.”
The nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center, which tracks the debt ceiling, said the Treasury is likely to reach its borrowing capacity by mid-summer. The U.S. could be unable to meet all its obligations by November 2027, according to a Nov. 6 estimate from Bank of America.
But Democrats may instead prefer to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in the next Congress.
In theory, Republicans could raise the debt ceiling with a budget reconciliation measure similar to the 2025 legislation. However, it will be difficult to assemble a coalition government after the election and pass another reconciliation bill by an unusually narrow margin. Budget reconciliation, which allows partisan bills to bypass the Senate filibuster, requires near-perfect unity.
Congressional leaders, especially the Republican Party, are likely to have difficulty getting lawmakers to attend after dozens of lawmakers lost their seats in a bloody election. The leadership will also have a hard time keeping its members in line, especially ahead of the next election.
energy construction permit
Top senators on the Energy Committee reached agreement on a permit bill before the election. The deal, which eases construction, may now be in jeopardy, although the Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote Monday night to advance the deal, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the schedule. The official requested anonymity because the move had not been announced.
Democrats’ supermajorities in the House and Senate may give them an incentive to defeat the permit deal in hopes of securing a better deal later. The deal may also have stalled before the election, as House Democratic leaders did not support the version accepted by Senate Democrats.
Politico reported Thursday that Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-Den., who is likely to become the next House speaker, does not support the permit deal.
Lawmakers have sought for years to reach a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to authorize the reforms, but have been unable to do so. Democrats want to accelerate the build-out of clean energy. Republicans have long complained that the federal permitting process and the environmental laws it contains are hampering America’s ability to build critical infrastructure.
defense spending
The House passed a version of the NDAA in July that authorized more than $1 trillion in defense spending. But Senate Democrats blocked the bill in that chamber that month, citing concerns about war with Iran.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement at the time: “Donald Trump is dragging the United States deeper into the Iran war with no permission, no plan, and no exit strategy. Democrats will not go along.”
The NDAA is generally considered a bill that requires bipartisan passage.
The bill, enacted in July, also sparked a backlash from companies over provisions that would limit the ability of Pentagon contractors to buy back stock or pay dividends without Pentagon approval.
But new wrinkles threaten to derail the NDAA process during its lame duck period. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a vote on articles of impeachment when he returns to Congress, but Democrats are already highly skeptical of the Pentagon’s demands in this year’s budget as the costly Iran war drags on.
NIL and stocks
Other priorities may also be given floor time.
In September, the Senate approved a bill on a bipartisan vote that would set federal rules for how college athletes are compensated. But the bill has many opponents in the House, especially among Democrats, further complicating its passage.
There have also been efforts for years to ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks.
In previous Congresses, this effort has been blocked by leadership from both parties. And recently, bipartisan efforts to pass the bill stalled after House Democrats demanded that the ban also apply to the president.
One Republican-led proposal, called the Insider Trading Prevention Act, passed the House in July with bipartisan support but ran into Democratic opposition because it applies only to Congress and does not require lawmakers to sell existing stock.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) called for action on the issue in Thursday’s X-Post. Mr. Young is a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the Stop Insider Trading Act.
“In a lame-duck session, we have a great chance to restore some credibility by banning members of Congress from trading stocks,” Young said. “I’ve been talking about this for months, and I think this makes sense.”
But Democrats hope to claim victory in Congressional stock trading in the next Congress.
In a letter to members of Congress announcing his candidacy for House speaker, Jeffries listed fighting corruption as a priority as part of the Democratic Party’s anti-corruption agenda.
“We must root out fraudulent price gouging, clean up the mess at the Supreme Court, and ban members of Congress from stock trading. Accountability starts at home,” Jeffries wrote.
