We’ve made it to December, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — temperatures are dropping, parts of the country are blanketed by snow and the holiday shopping is in full swing. December will also bring a flurry of activity by the lame-duck Congress, which must pass a government funding bill by December 20 and still has to deal with a farm bill, the annual defense policy bill and a request by the Biden administration for $99 billion in emergency disaster relief. On the Senate side, Democrats want to confirm as many of Biden’s judicial nominations as possible.
Lawmakers have just a few weeks to juggle all that even as Republicans gear up for an ambitious first 100 days of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
Government funding: House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to pass a three-month continuing resolution that would push the government funding fight into March. That approach would avoid a December vote on a full-year spending package that would likely be politically perilous for Johnson, given that it would be sure to raise the ire of hardline conservatives ahead of a January vote to decide who gets the speaker’s gavel.
At the same time, a three-month stopgap may complicate legislative plans for the incoming GOP administration and congressional majorities.
Republicans could look to pass much of their agenda via the budget reconciliation process, but they’ll be working with extremely narrow margins in the House to start, and any fight over spending cuts could still get messy.
“Johnson is expected to have just 218 Republicans on the first day of Congress because of the resignations of Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, whom Trump tapped to be national security adviser, which means he can lose only two Republican votes,” The Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Patrick Svitek report. “A vote on a spending bill that often divides Republicans could be problematic for Johnson.”
This month’s funding bill could also be the vehicle for an extension of the farm bill, additional disaster relief and Ukraine funding, though Johnson has made clear that he wants the incoming administration to be able to decide whether to move forward with any additional funding for Kyiv.
Punchbowl News reports that House Republican leaders plan to attach a one-year farm bill extension to the coming spending bill. “The straight one-year extension is a suboptimal result for the House and Senate, given that both chambers have their own agriculture policy proposals,” Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan write. “But clearing the legislation will give Trump and the Republicans the opportunity — and challenge — of crafting a farm bill when they have the Washington trifecta next year.”
The bottom line: The December 20 deadline is coming up, but a spending deal that avoids a shutdown is likely — and the details of that deal will shape how the first months of the new Trump administration play out. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that negotiations are on the right track. “Both sides are making progress negotiating on a bill that can pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support,” he said.
