Congress returns Monday to government funding, debt limit debates
The U.S. Capitol exterior after the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation to avert a government shutdown before the midterm elections, September 1, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz | Reuters
The House and Senate are due to return to Washington on Monday with a crowded legislative agenda in the final weeks before the end of the 119th Congress.
Congress will need to act quickly to extend government funding, which expires Dec. 11. Lawmakers will need to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and they may tackle ambitious proposals including a construction permitting package and a bill to regulate name, image and likeness rules in college sports.
The work will commence under a new dynamic. Republicans come back to the Capitol diminished after suffering substantial losses in this week’s midterms. Democrats swept to a commanding majority in the House with at least 255 seats in the 435-member chamber and could emerge with as many as 56 seats in the Senate.
With majorities in both chambers looming, Democrats will have little incentive to cut deals with their GOP counterparts.
Government funding
The most pressing concern lawmakers will face when they return is funding the government. Current funding expires Dec. 11. Congress must pass another continuing resolution to retain current spending levels or a full-year suite of appropriations bills before then to avoid a government shutdown.
Appropriations bills and continuing resolutions require bipartisan majorities due to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold. Democrats are unlikely to negotiate a full year of government funding before the new Congress is sworn in, given that they will soon hold commanding majorities in both chambers and can use that to leverage concessions from the White House.
“This former preschool teacher is going to teach President Trump a simple lesson: The power of the purse belongs to CONGRESS!” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the presumptive chair of the Appropriations Committee, said in an X post Tuesday as election results rolled in. “It’s NOT Trump’s money. Taxpayer dollars belong to the American PEOPLE.”
Adding another wrinkle to the funding push is the electoral loss of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is one of the “four corners” of spending talks. Collins lost reelection to Democrat Troy Jackson, ending a five-term career in the Senate.
Debt ceiling
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., have called for Congress to raise the debt limit before Republicans lose control.
In September, the federal debt hit $40 trillion for the first time, bumping up against the $41.1 trillion ceiling written into the GOP’s 2025 budget reconciliation law known as the “one big beautiful bill.”
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit that tracks the debt limit, said Treasury is likely to hit its maximum borrowing capacity by mid-summer. The U.S. may no longer be able to meet all its obligations…
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