Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill on Monday for a busy “lame duck” agenda, and an open question is how the midterm results — Democrats maintaining Senate control next year, with Republicans potentially headed for a very narrow House majority — will affect this year’s remaining work.
Here’s a look at some of what’s left to do in the lame duck, the name given the two-month period after the new Congress is elected but during which the current Congress still holds power.
Appropriations: Leaders hope to pass a fiscal 2023 omnibus spending package before the December holidays. Current funding expires Dec. 16, and the top Senate appropriators — Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala. — are both retiring. But there isn’t much time to negotiate.
