Lame-Duck Congress Plays Chicken With Your Paycheck

Congress returned Monday, November 9, 2026, with 31 days to fund the government before a December 11 shutdown deadline, and the people who'll absorb the damage if they fail aren't the ones sitting in those chairs. Axios called the session "especially lame." That's the sentence the whole place deserves.

Who Has the Power

Here's the setup. Democrats delivered what the base reporting calls a crushing defeat to Republicans in the midterms. Republicans lose their House and Senate majorities on January 3, which is 54 days from today. Trump still wields the veto. Dozens of House lawmakers and at least 17 senators are leaving Congress. NewsNation reports the current crop has about five weeks to finish a long list of work before the new Congress is sworn in.

Axios says Democrats have little incentive to help Republicans advance their agenda before January, and that departing GOP lawmakers could complicate matters by skipping votes or defying party leaders. Most items on the to-do list, the outlet says, could be kicked to the new Congress.

Read that again. Lawmakers who've been voted out, or who are walking away on their own, may simply not show up. Nadeam Elshami, former chief of staff to Nancy Pelosi, put it plainly on attendance: "If it's a critical vote, then I believe members would return," but on less consequential votes, "I highly doubt that they'll be in town." Consequential to whom, exactly? Congress is out Wednesday through Friday for Veterans Day anyway.

What They're Calling "Order"

The to-do list tells you what the apparatus actually cares about. The annual National Defense Authorization Act has to pass, potentially setting up a fight over the Iran war. Senate Republicans are racing to confirm more Trump administration officials and judicial nominees before Democrats take over. A bipartisan permitting bill, BAAJA, could overhaul approvals of energy and infrastructure projects, with a cloture vote set for Monday at 5:30 p.m. needing 60 votes. In the House, six nuclear energy bills were set for votes Monday evening.

Elshami said: "What has to get done is appropriations and the NDAA bill." War money and funding the machine, in that order of urgency. He added that Democrats "have both the momentum and the leverage." Leverage over what, and against whom? Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist and former communications director for the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, was just as blunt: "I think there's some things that Democrats would be happy to kick down the road."

The House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune demanding a reconciliation package, codification of Trump's border policies, a continuing resolution at current spending levels, a congressional stock trading ban, term limits, energy permitting legislation, voter ID legislation, confirmation of Trump's nominees, and reauthorization of expiring programs. Their slogan: "No leaving town until it's done — let's finish the job!" Elshami's read on the reconciliation package: "I just don't see that getting done."

Notice the stock trading ban on that list, a rule to stop lawmakers from trading on what they learn at work, floated as one demand among many in a bargaining letter.

The Reform Trap

Some of the unfinished business is the kind that gets dangled and dropped. House GOP leaders would rather avoid another Jeffrey Epstein bill and an impeachment vote. Rep. Thomas Massie is pushing the Epstein vote and plans to force a vote this week on his impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Leadership's preference is to avoid both. That's the institution managing its own exposure.

Democratic Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Sam Liccardo of California will file a discharge petition to restore Temporary Protected Status for Afghan nationals. People whose legal standing hinges on a procedural petition in a body that's busy kicking cans have no guarantee of a vote, let alone a result. NewsNation's Joe Khalil says early House votes next year are expected to focus on Medicaid and restoring extra tax credits that lower Affordable Care Act premiums. Health coverage for ordinary people sits in the queue behind the calendar of the people who control it.

The funding deadline will come and go on the schedule set by those in the building. Whoever can't wait for them has always had to organize without them.