The final three weeks of the 118th Congress will be a dash to the finish line as lawmakers race to address all of the biggest legislative priorities of the year.
By Dec. 20, the House and Senate are aiming to strike a deal to punt the government funding deadline into the next Congress, approve a massive disaster aid package, pass the annual defense policy bill, and possibly even land a compromise on a bundle of natural resources bills and an energy permitting proposal that, like everything else, have been stalled for months.
At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has vowed to pursue an aggressive pace for more votes on President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. He has scheduled Senate Democrats’ leadership elections for Tuesday morning.
“It will be a very busy and consequential few weeks in the Senate when we return,” Schumer said before the Thanksgiving recess.
One of the most pressing priorities will be to chart a path forward on fiscal 2025 funding for federal agencies, which are due to run out of cash before Christmas unless Congress passes a stopgap into next year. Settling on a funding plan early would grease the skids for lawmakers’ other agenda items to fall into place.
Hopes for a comprehensive year-end spending package have faded given the lack of progress since August, and lawmakers have acknowledged that they will need a continuing resolution to kick the funding fight into next year. They’re hoping to use that CR as a legislative vehicle for other big-ticket items.
Top appropriators have been looking for direction from Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on how to proceed, but they have offered few details. Johnson has signaled that Congress will likely finish fiscal 2025 appropriations under the guidance of the incoming Trump administration and Republican majorities, but it’s not yet clear exactly how long this month’s funding extension will last.
Supplemental disaster relief funding will almost certainly be part of whatever spending deal Congress approves. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have come out in support of Biden’s recent $99 billion disaster aid request, and despite some partisan haggling over the cost and various line items, it remains a likely contender to hitch a ride on the funding extension.
On Wednesday, Democratic and Republican senators from Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia — the states most impacted by Hurricane Helene in September — wrote to Senate leaders urging them to facilitate action on a disaster package amid desperate calls for new funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and other agencies.
“Disaster relief cannot wait any longer,” the senators wrote in a letter. “We urge you to bring a robust supplemental appropriations bill to the floor the first week of December.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who earlier this year suggested he would consider holding up any spending deal that did not include disaster aid, expressed confidence that Congress would not allow relief funding to be delayed further.
“We always step up when our fellow Americans are suffering, and I don’t think this December is going to be any exception,” he said.
Republicans are also focusing on preparing for their power “trifecta” next year. On Thursday, House and Senate Republicans will meet with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to lead a government efficiency task force that could decimate a range of environmental programs.
Johnson said on X that they will discuss “major reform ideas to achieve regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings — & revive the principle of limited government!”
Defense, natural resources, permitting
The fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act will be a major bipartisan priority expected to easily pass in the next several weeks.
House and Senate Armed Services leaders have been negotiating a compromise amid hang-ups over the bill’s top-line funding authorization and hot-button issues — from Pentagon diversity initiatives to military climate resilience and emissions-reduction programs — and bill text could be released as soon as this week.
Lawmakers are eyeing the must-pass defense bill — like the CR — as a possible vehicle for other bipartisan legislation, including packages focused on natural resources and energy permitting.
Both chambers have a slew of natural resources bills approved by their respective committees and awaiting floor action. The list includes big-ticket items like H.R. 6492, the “Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act,” to revamp public lands for recreation.
The bill has passed the House unanimously but awaits Senate action. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) has repeatedly told POLITICO’s E&E News he’s seeking a vehicle for the bill.
Also a candidate for inclusion in a potential package is Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) S. 373, the “Reinvesting In Shoreline Economies and Ecosystems (RISEE) Act,” which would create a revenue-sharing arrangement for offshore wind projects with states and advanced from ENR this month.
The panel pushed through a total of 75 bills as part of a mammoth markup last month, which Manchin said “will form the basis of our efforts to get another public lands package across the finish line before the end of the year.”
One senior Democratic member of the House Natural Resources Committee, who was granted anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, said they’re looking for progress on land and tribal water bills during the lame duck (see related story).
The lawmaker said they “would love to see something significant come together.”
The lawmaker also said they would like to see “a smart permitting reform compromise” built around Manchin’s bill with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) — referring to S. 4753, the “Energy Permitting Reform Act” — “with a few necessary changes.”
Many House Democrats have been skeptical of the Manchin-Barrasso deal, preferring to wait to see if the election would deliver them more leverage to negotiate.
But with voters giving Republican majorities in the House and Senate and control of the White House, Democrats may now be more willing to strike a deal before the transfer of power. Barrasso has also said Republicans remain at the negotiating table despite the election outcome.
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) has proposed a bill to reform the National Environmental Policy Act, a product he broke away from extended negotiations with California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters. Peters did not initially sign on to the Westerman legislation, but his office and Westerman said the pair is continuing to negotiate on NEPA.
Westerman has previously suggested attaching his NEPA package to the Manchin-Barrasso bill in an effort to push a broad accord through the House. The Senate bill doesn’t include NEPA changes.
However, it’s unclear what sort of changes many Democrats will want to make to the Manchin-Barrasso bill before it can pass the House, and many Democrats are likely to outright reject changes to NEPA.
