Congress’ post-election, lame-duck session will be a mess. A barely Republican House, barely Democratic Senate and barely competent Biden-Harris administration have finished barely any of the routine business of government this year. They need to wrap it up and without any funny business.
Next year’s fiscal cliff will consume every scrap of policymakers’ time and attention. In 2025, Congress and the new president will have to confront the $4 trillion expiration of many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the sunset of the pandemic expansion of Obamacare’s health exchange subsidy tax credits, the regular budget and appropriations legislation without enforceable caps, and another debt limit deal.
But before they can turn to that, here’s this Congress’ unfinished business:
1 — Appropriations: The House has passed only five of the twelve appropriations bills, but the Senate has approved none. They were supposed to be done before the August recess, but a continuing resolution has extended prior spending levels through December 20. One way or another, Congress has to find a way to fund defense, diplomacy, the courts, and much more before the end of the year. Striking a backroom spending deal against a deadline cuts most members out of the process, leaves too much bloat intact and creates an almost-irresistible chance to tack on unrelated topics.
2 — Defense Authorization: Every year since 1961, Congress has enacted a National Defense Authorization Act. It sets out priorities for the Department of Defense and related agencies. After all, national security is the most important responsibility of the federal government. Getting it done has become a chore, partly due to legitimate differences about America’s role in the world, and partly from a range of social and cultural controversies affecting the Department of Defense.
3 — Disaster relief: The FEMA-run Disaster Relief Fund is nearly tapped out, and the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program already is. The federal government has taken on a big role when emergencies happen, and Congress will surely borrow some tens of billions to keep that going. Will aid to Ukraine and Israel make it in there too, beyond the $175 billion and $17.9 billion already committed to their current conflicts?
4 — Social Security (Un)Fairness: Retiring Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) corralled almost all Democrats and a handful of Republicans into pushing legislation onto the floor that would give a $200 billion windfall to government retirees and drain the trust fund half a year sooner. It will probably pass the House, but will the Senate block this unjust legislation?
Those are the big pieces, but it’s not all.
Instead of passing a new farm bill, Congress may just extend current policies and make it next year’s problem. They will need to waive away the totally toothless enforcement from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act, which would otherwise completely wipe out certain programs in January. No doubt there are plenty of other things that should have been done by now.
The question isn’t what problems Congress will solve any more. It doesn’t seriously challenge executive overreach, pare back under-performing programs or tackle a growing pile of festering challenges.
The question is whether Congress can complete its most basic responsibilities, even months late. The disturbing answer is that we’ll have to wait and see.
Congress isn’t set up to do its job well. Members continue to hope and pray that somehow, it will work this time, while ignoring how the same actions have failed in the past.
If Congress wants better results, and if members want serving in Congress to be a better experience, they are going to have to do things differently.
But for now, they have a lot to catch up on.
Featured Image Credit: Balon Greyjoy
