Lame duck: Funding deadline looms as Senate scrambles on judges

In both chambers of Congress, Democrats almost certainly hoped they would be heading into a much different lame-duck session than the one in which they find themselves: They will have just a few weeks more of influence in Washington before President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans take over.

While Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris last week, Republicans also regained a majority in the Senate—at least 52 seats, with Arizona yet to be officially declared—while it appears they will retain their small majority in the House as well.

Republicans and Democrats are coming into the home stretch of the 118th Congress with separate priorities.

Democrats are hoping to use the five-week working period that starts Tuesday and lasts through most of December to lock down as much of President Biden’s legacy as they can, either through the appropriations process or, in the Senate, confirming as many judicial nominees as the calendar can bear.

“We’re going to make sure that we keep the government open; we’re going to deliver assistance for communities devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other recent disasters,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference Thursday. “We’re going to pass the [National Defense Authorization Act], and we’re also going to make sure that we confirm well-qualified judicial nominees. That’s going to be our focus.”

Here’s what to look for in the lame-duck session:

Leadership elections

One of the first agenda items will be to choose leadership in each chamber.

Senate Republican leadership will have a new face for the first time in decades, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepping away. GOP senators on Wednesday will choose between Minority Whip John Thune and Sens. John Cornyn and Rick Scott.

The next Senate leader will be crucial in implementing Trump’s agenda and helping Republicans keep their majority in the 2026 midterms. The third in that governing trio will be the speaker of the House.

House Republicans on Wednesday will also choose their leader, likely re-selecting current Speaker Mike Johnson, after Trump appeared to give him a vote of confidence last week. He will receive a full vote on the floor in January.

Funding the government

For both sides, government funding will be at the top of the list. Congress avoided a government shutdown in September, keeping the light on until Dec. 20. At the time, lawmakers hoped it would buy enough time to at least agree on an omnibus spending package carrying the government through the rest of the fiscal year.

Throughout recess, though, there has been little signal of any closing of the gap between the two parties on spending levels, raising the chance for another short-term measure. Congress is still operating under the terms of a deal struck between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden in May 2023, in which increases for fiscal 2025 are capped at 1 percent for discretionary spending, though the Senate’s previous proposals this year push past that level.

For their spending strategy, Republicans have a choice. First, they could pivot in the lame duck to a short-term continuing resolution, funding the government only until early next year but allowing Trump and a likely unified Republican Congress to write spending legislation covering most of 2025.

But there is also an argument to be made inside the conference that, with the other high-profile items on the agenda for the first quarter of next year, a funding battle would only complicate things.

When House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced his bid for the same position next Congress, the Louisiana Republican included a list of priorities for the first 100 days with unified control of Washington. At the top of the list was immigration policy, energy policy, and the tax code. Absent from the list were any plans to pass government-funding legislation.

Republicans have signaled they want to quickly pass a massive bill renewing the Trump tax cuts for 2017, along with language covering health care and immigration, through budget reconciliation, bypassing the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate. Such a massive bill would take weeks to months to draft and advance through Congress, offering little time for a spending fight early next year.

However, if the president-elect signals he’d rather address government funding when Republicans control the trifecta once more, another short-term CR until after his term and the Congress begins would likely be on the table.

Defense spending

Congress has delayed passage for the National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed its $895 billion version in June, while the Senate’s $919 billion version exited the Armed Services Committee but has not yet gotten a vote in the full chamber.

The two versions must still be reconciled as well, and the two chambers are split both on funding levels and conservative policy riders tucked into the House version. The current law expires in late December.

Disaster relief

A high priority for lawmakers will be to approve a disaster-relief supplemental funding package, which will come on the heels of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, which ravaged the Southeast this fall.

In September, lawmakers extended 2024 disaster-relief funding levels, but punted on an additional supplemental for the Federal Emergency Management Agency program. That left communities reeling from prior disasters—such as the wildfires in Hawaii—without long-term recovery.

There are several bills orbiting to address shortfalls in FEMA funding and for new disaster loans for the Small Business Administration.

Lawmakers might also address funding to repair the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March after it was struck by a cargo ship. The White House has been calling upon Congress to fully fund the reconstruction of the Baltimore bridge by year’s end.

Health care

The reelection of Trump holds substantial implications for the future of health policy, including Obamacare, Medicaid, and reproductive health rights. But before he even makes it to office, there are several pieces of health policy and legislation teed up for the end of this year.

Some of the Medicare telehealth flexibilities that were enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire at the end of 2024. This includes waiving geographic restrictions and allowing Medicare patients to receive telehealth services at home. A bill that proposed to make these flexibilities permanent passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously in September.

A temporary boost in physician pay under Medicare will also expire, and physicians are staring down a 2.8 percent payment cut starting in January, according to the American Medical Association. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, some of whom are doctors, introduced legislation last month that would provide a 4.7 percent payment update, offsetting the cut.

Last year, the House passed a bipartisan bill focusing on increasing transparency around prices for hospital services, clinical laboratories, imaging service providers, and ambulatory surgical centers. The legislation also regulates practices by pharmacy-benefit managers, including a measure prohibiting spread-pricing, in which a PBM charges a health plan more than it paid for a drug and pockets the difference.

While this was an accomplishment for retiring House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, it’s unclear if there will be more movement on the legislation before Congress adjourns.

There will also be the familiar to-do list as part of funding the government, such as authorizing funding to community health centers. House and Senate appropriators will have to resolve substantial differences in their spending bills for the Health and Human Services Department. House lawmakers proposed a total budget of $107.6 billion, which would cut funding by $8.5 billion compared to fiscal 2024, according to the committee report. Senators want to provide an increase in discretionary funding up to $122.8 billion.

Social Security discharge petition

The House must vote soon on bipartisan legislation that would ensure Social Security benefits for workers who are also eligible for pensions. Using a procedural move known as a discharge petition, rank-and-file members forced leadership to schedule a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act in September. A vote is likely to take place this week.

During a pro forma session of the House over the election recess, members of the House Freedom Caucus attempted to scuttle the bill but ultimately were not able to stop an upcoming vote. The bill would still need to pass the Senate to make it to the president’s desk.

Judges

Earlier this fall, senators on both sides of the aisle began preparing for a rush of judicial confirmations in the lame duck in the event of a Trump victory, and that sprint is set to begin immediately.

Seventeen nominees are pending on the floor, along with several others waiting in committee, which includes seven nominees who are expected to advance to the floor during the next work period, a source familiar with the process told National Journal.

Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who also chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement: “Senate Democrats are in a strong position regarding judicial confirmations as we approach the lame duck session given that we have a number of nominees on the floor ready for a vote, and others still moving through Committee. Chair Durbin aims to confirm every possible nominee before the end of this Congress.”

Democrats have an opportunity to break a record set by Trump for the number of judicial nominees confirmed during a single term: Biden is 21 nominees away from tying the 234 confirmed by the president-elect during his first term.

And they will likely prioritize doing so to add some judicial cushion before Republicans retake the nominating mantle and begin a judicial push of their own.

The source said there are more nomination hearings in the pipeline to consider two California nominees announced by the White House in late October.

Tech policy

Given the flurry of competing priorities and partisan jockeying, don’t expect much in the way of tech legislation during the lame duck.

Though both the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act sailed through the Senate earlier this year, they still have not—and likely will never see—the House floor.

Speaker Johnson in October called KOSA, which comes with a duty-of-care provision that requires companies to protect the health of kids who use their website, “very problematic.”

“I love the principle, but the details of that are very problematic,” Johnson told Punchbowl News. Though both bills are likely dead for this Congress, there is a slight chance they could be added to the spending bill Congress may pass before the end of the year.

More likely to get passed over is any action on spectrum, the frequency bands used for wireless communication. The Federal Communications Commission has previously been tasked with auctioning off spectrum bands, but the agency lost that auction authority in 2013.

Both sides of the aisle want to renew the FCC’s auction authority, but they have gotten stuck in the details. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chair Maria Cantwell's Spectrum and National Security Act would renew the FCC’s auction authority and add funds to the now-expired Affordable Connectivity Program, which provided government-funded internet discounts for impoverished families.

The committee’s top Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, also has his own spectrum bill. His bill would direct the FCC to auction off more spectrum bands than Cantwell’s measure, but it does not come with ACP reauthorization.

With Cruz likely to take over the committee in January, there is practically no chance for Cantwell’s bill to move forward.

Farm bill

Lawmakers have already extended the current five-year farm bill once, and with little indication that they’ll reach a deal before the end of the year, another extension in some form is likely.