Congress returned to Washington on Monday, November 9, for the final session of the 119th Congress — a lame-duck stretch that will decide whether the federal government stays open past December 11, who leads each party into the next Congress, and how much unfinished business gets done before Democrats take control of both chambers on January 3, 2027.
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| The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Congress returned on Monday, November 9, 2026, for the lame-duck session of the 119th Congress. (Wikimedia Commons) |
It is an unusual homecoming. Six days earlier, voters handed Democrats control of the House and the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections. But the election did not transfer power overnight. Republicans still hold the gavel in both chambers until the new Congress is sworn in, House Speaker Mike Johnson still sets the House agenda, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune still decides what reaches the Senate floor.
The Clock: Funding Runs Out December 11
The one decision Congress cannot avoid is money. Federal funding under the current stopgap runs out on December 11, and without full-year spending bills or another temporary extension, parts of the government would shut down.
The stopgap, H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, became law on September 2, when President Donald Trump signed it. It funds federal agencies at fiscal 2026 levels through December 11, after Congress deliberately punted the funding fight until after the elections. The House agreed to the Senate's version on September 1 by a vote of 370 to 48.
The problem is how little has been done since. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, the House has passed three of the 12 annual spending bills for fiscal 2027, and the Senate has passed none. The House calendar shows just 16 session days between Monday and the funding deadline.
Nobody in either party is publicly predicting a full-year deal. The most discussed option, according to reports, is another short-term continuing resolution running into February or March, which would push the final fiscal 2027 funding decisions into the new Congress, when Democrats will have far more leverage in negotiations with President Trump. One House Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters they expect a stopgap running into February or March, adding that no one wants a shutdown — "Not even Dems."
The White House backed the current stopgap when it was passed, with the Office of Management and Budget calling it "a clean, short-term continuing resolution" and saying President Trump "strongly opposes another futile Government shutdown." The stakes are familiar: the country's longest shutdown ran 43 days and ended about a year ago, in the fall of 2025. The funding fight is complicated by politics on both sides. Democrats do not want to start their majorities with a shutdown, but they also do not want to let Republicans determine funding levels for their first year of legislative control.
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| House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson, who remains Speaker until the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027, said he will not seek the Republican leadership post in the next Congress. (Official portrait) |
Leadership Fights on Both Sides
The first order of business for House Republicans is choosing who will lead them into the minority. The party holds its leadership elections on Tuesday, November 10, with Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representative Jim Jordan competing for minority leader after Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not seek the post.
Johnson told his staff on Wednesday, November 4 — a day after Democrats captured the House majority — that he would not stay on as Republican leader in the new Congress. Scalise announced his bid for minority leader in a letter to GOP colleagues. Jordan was the founding chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and a frequent thorn in the side of GOP leadership. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland has backed Jordan, saying he is the type of communicator the party needs. Others argue Scalise is better positioned because of his current leadership role.
In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune is expected to go unchallenged in the Republican leadership vote, though some of the president's allies have blamed him for losing the Senate and called for a new leader, and some Senate Republicans have pushed to delay the vote. Democrats will hold their own leadership elections the week after the Republican votes, with Senate Democrats voting in early December. Meanwhile, at least 109 incoming House freshmen will take seats in January, the largest pre-convening class since the 73rd Congress in 1933, and freshman orientation begins this week.
The Unfinished List: Defense, Farm Bill, Debt Limit
Beyond funding and leadership, lawmakers face a long list of unfinished business — and a short clock.
The annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, must be passed by year-end. The House and Senate versions of the roughly $1.15 trillion authorization measure are still being reconciled, and Senate Democrats blocked the bill in a 50-46 vote in July amid a standoff over the Iran war. Democrats have also signaled they will oppose the administration's request for a record $1.5 trillion defense budget, and they have said they will press to cut off funding for the Iran war as the defense bill moves.
The farm bill is another unresolved item: the 2018 farm bill has expired after multiple extensions, and some programs face legal or funding problems.
The Senate's first test comes quickly. On Monday evening, the chamber was scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the permitting reform bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, using H.R. 2347 as the legislative vehicle. The motion to proceed needs 60 votes to advance.
The debt ceiling may be the most politically fraught item of all. The debt limit is currently set at $41.1 trillion, raised by $5 trillion under the 2025 reconciliation law, and analysts say it will likely be reached within about six months, in the first half of 2027, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. After that, the Treasury would begin using extraordinary measures to keep paying the government's bills. Republicans are weighing a debt-limit increase before Democrats take over, which would remove a borrowing deadline that analysts say could arrive in early to mid-2027 as a source of leverage against Trump. But the path is narrow: an early increase would almost certainly require another party-line budget reconciliation bill, and Thune can lose only three votes on any GOP-only measure.
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| House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries said on Monday that Democrats will "not give a dime" toward funding the Trump administration's deportation efforts. (Official portrait) |
What the Democrats Are Signaling
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries used the first day back to lay out an aggressive agenda for his party. At a press conference on Monday, Jeffries declared that Democrats will "not give a dime" toward funding the Trump administration's deportation efforts, a message aimed squarely at the funding negotiations ahead.
On Sunday, November 8, Jeffries told ABC's "This Week" that he is a "hard yes" on a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of abusing his authority, undermining national security, and engineering what he called a "reckless and costly war of choice in Iran." Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor on Monday. Because Republicans still control the House until January, passage is not assured, but the resolution is privileged, meaning it could force a House vote.
What This Means
Lame-duck sessions, held between a November election and the swearing-in of a new Congress in early January, often produce must-pass spending measures but rarely major new policy, since outgoing members include retirees and election losers with little incentive to cast tough votes.
For Republicans, the session is a final window to use single-party power: confirm judges, finish bipartisan deals like permitting reform, and decide whether to lock in funding levels or raise the debt ceiling before Democrats take over. For Democrats, the incentive is the opposite — to run out the clock, avoid handing Republicans a win, and preserve their leverage for January, when they will write the budget and set the agenda. That tension is why most observers expect only a few must-pass bills, a pile of judicial confirmations, and an early Christmas for Congress.
What Happens Next
The immediate tests come fast. House Republicans vote on their leadership on Tuesday, November 10, and the Senate holds its first procedural vote on the permitting bill on Monday evening. Democrats will hold their leadership elections in the days after, with Senate Democrats voting in early December.
Watch three things in the weeks ahead: whether House and Senate leaders coalesce around a continuing resolution well before December 11, or let the deadline drift toward another shutdown standoff; whether President Trump pushes lawmakers to address the debt ceiling before January, or leaves it as a fight for the new Congress; and whether the lame-duck session produces anything more than the bare minimum before members head home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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