The House is preparing for one final sprint before the Christmas recess, with an annual defense bill and more spending negotiations expected to consume lawmakers’ time when they return to Washington next week.
The only truly must-pass legislation will be the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Pentagon’s policy priorities each year and typically clears Congress with bipartisan support. That means lawmakers will be attempting to attach their pieces of legislation to the bill in last-minute talks before a vote is held sometime before mid-December.
“We’re on a 64-year streak right now, so a lot of other legislation from other committees tends to get attached to our bill, and then we have some pieces of legislation that have multiple jurisdictions,” House Armed Services ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) told the Washington Examiner.
“We wind up working with a lot of the other committees to put together what ultimately winds up being about a four- or five-thousand-page, $900 billion bill,” he added.
Smith, a Democrat, said Congress is playing catch-up after the shutdown but praised the defense bill as one of the brighter spots of bipartisan cooperation despite the gridlock. An earlier version of the legislation passed largely along party lines due to social provisions objected to by Democrats, but the final bill, the product of negotiations with the Senate, is expected to be less controversial.
“The process around the defense bill is still working in a way that many other aspects of the legislative process in D.C. are not,” he said.
The appropriations process has not worked nearly as smoothly. After failing to reach an agreement on the 12 annual spending bills before an Oct. 1 deadline, the government shut down due to a failure to reach a compromise on a shorter-term spending deal, with Democrats’ demand for an extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies igniting the impasse.
In the effort to reopen the government, Congress passed three of the 12 bills along with a short-term funding deal that lasts until the end of January. Members of the House Appropriations Committee have struck a note of optimism that they can use the extra time to get more of the bills across the finish line.
Apart from spending, House members have several other priorities they want to push before year-end, with the Obamacare subsidies expected to be one flashpoint.
Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfuger (R-TX) released an outline for a second reconciliation package on Monday in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. Congress passed President Donald Trump’s “Big, beautiful bill” through the reconciliation process earlier this year, which serves as a vehicle to pass a large chunk of the president’s agenda without having to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
The framework highlights three key areas the Republican wants to target: affordability, law and order, and the American family. The bill aims to lower the cost of housing and healthcare by expanding health savings accounts and would eliminate the capital-gains tax on primary residences.
“You asked why Republicans would run for Congress if not to do something good for the country,” the chairman wrote. “This is why: a second reconciliation bill that reduces healthcare and housing costs for American families. That’s consequential legislation, governing with a purpose, and we intend to deliver.”
Addressing healthcare through a reconciliation package comes as the Obama-era subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year, which has caused a major divide in Congress. While Democrats have fought for longer extensions of the tax credits, many Republicans in the House want them to expire, but have yet to put together a unified plan to ensure premiums do not skyrocket.
Some Republican House members have expressed support and willingness to work with Democrats on a short-term extension of the subsidies, but that view is believed to lack sufficient support within the conference.
Lastly, members are expected to push their own agenda through discharge petitions, a type of measure that forces House leadership to bring up a vote on an issue that has majority support.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has expressed his frustration with members’ use of the tool this Congress, as more lawmakers have vowed to bring forward the petitions following the successful effort to release the Epstein files.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has vowed to advance a petition on a stock trading ban for members of Congress if the committee of jurisdiction does not move ahead with legislation.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) alerted GOP leadership he would be moving forward with a discharge petition to impose sanctions on Russia after both chambers delayed the bill at the request of the White House, despite extensive support in both parties.
“We have officially notified both the Clerk of the House and House leadership of our discharge petition to force a vote on crushing Russian sanctions immediately upon our return,” he wrote on X.
