Legislative Action Planned for the Remainder of This Year
As noted above, Congress is out of session next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, and the legislative calendar contemplates the year-end holiday recess will begin on December 18 in the House/December 19 in the Senate. That leaves just four weeks to tackle a long to-do list, including the items listed below.
- Amendment of FY 2026 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill. The Legislative Branch appropriations bill enacted last week included language that retroactively grants senators a private right of action to sue the United States for at least $500,000 per instance if the government searched or subpoenaed their electronic data without notification. The provision could result in large monetary awards to several Republican senators whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of Department of Justice January 6th Many House Republicans strongly object to the provision – Rep. Steube (R-FL) cited it as a reason for his “no” vote on the CR. The House voted this week on a bill (H.R. 6019) to overturn it. That measure should pass the House with strong bipartisan support. It is not likely to get a vote in the Senate, but supporters will try to enact it by attaching the language to an upcoming appropriations bill.
- FY 2026 Appropriations. Congress has yet to enact nine of the 12 FY 2026 appropriations bills that together comprise 90 percent of federal operations. The House and Senate remain far apart on top-line spending totals for those bills. More specifically, some of the measures involve contentious spending issues, and Democrats could delay a vote on spending measures in the Senate if they do not include some guardrails against future recissions by the White House. Despite these hurdles, appropriators and congressional leaders hope to advance a second minibus funding package that could include Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and perhaps also Interior, appropriations bills.
- National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Negotiations to reconcile differences between the versions of the NDAA passed by the House and Senate might finish by Thanksgiving, which would allow for a House vote in early December, followed by a Senate vote before Congress recesses at the end of the year.
- Healthcare. Majority Leader Thune promised a Senate vote in December on a Democratic-led bill to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, but House Speaker Johnson (R-LA) has not committed to a vote in the House. Many moderate House Republicans, particularly those in competitive districts, favor an extension combined with reforms to the program like lowering the qualifying income cap. But a majority of Republicans in both chambers want to kill the subsidies and instead address healthcare cost issues via other reforms, including by funding taxpayer-advantaged accounts for individuals to pay directly for healthcare. Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to try to force a House vote before the end of the year on a bill that would extend the subsidies for three years with no reforms to the program. (A discharge petition is a procedural tool that permits rank-and-file House members to force a floor vote on a measure if a majority of the House – 218 members – sign on. But the process takes a while, and it would require some Republicans to publicly buck leadership, so it faces long odds for success.)
A bipartisan group of Senators are working on a potentially broader bill to deal with skyrocketing health insurance premiums. House Republican committee chairs began “listening sessions” this week, to solicit suggestions for legislative changes to healthcare policy. And Ways and Means Committee Republicans are preparing to brief committee members on proposals designed to lower healthcare costs. But Republican members have not yet agreed on whether to try for a bipartisan solution or pursue their own agenda via a second budget reconciliation process. Either way, work on these issues will consume a significant amount of legislative time and attention.
Ban on Congressional Stock Trading. Rep. Luna (R-FL) has been threatening to use a discharge petition to force a vote on a contentious bill to ban lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children from trading individual stocks. Multiple versions of legislation are pending. A House committee will hold a hearing on the issue this week. Supporters will push leadership to bring a bill to the floor this year.