The midterms are over, mostly. While a number of races are still counting votes, Washington seems ready to move on. Party leadership elections begin next week. Pundits are pushing postmortems. And incoming lawmakers are laying out their agendas for the 120th Congress. But there are still two months left in the 119th and there is a to-do list. Lawmakers, and voters, may be ready to move on, but the lame duck is calling.
As a reminder, any elected official in between the election of a successor and their being sworn into office is a “lame duck,” because of their lessened influence due to their pending departure. In Congress, the post-election period when departing ducks get in some last quick quacks is known as a lame duck session. These can be marked by free-wheeling and dealing with bills moving or sometimes crickets – it all depends on what needs to be done and what power centers feel like they are better off doing now or next Congress.
This time could be lamer than usual. Even before votes were cast, retirements, primary losses, and plans to run for a different office meant nearly 100 of the 535 seats in the legislative branch would turn over. Throw in additional election day losses by incumbents and you have quite a flock of soon-to-be ex-Representatives and Senators looking forward to, or looking for, their next gig. In the House, these folks and their dwindling staff (who are looking for new jobs) are kicked from their offices and corralled into the spartan Departing Member Center, as the biennial reshuffling of offices begins. In a Congress where tight margins, partisan heel digging, and intra-caucus conflict routinely ground the House to a halt, it’s an open question whether enough lame duck lawmakers migrate back to DC to finish the year’s work.
The challenge is that there are things left to do and pressure to get it done.
Most pressing, Congress needs to fulfill their most basic responsibility and pass appropriations to fund the government. The government is running on a Continuing Resolution, locking in FY2026 spending levels through December 11 for most programs. With a number of Appropriations Committee members not returning next year, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), this is their last chance to shape the federal budget. There is still time to adopt final spending bills over the next two months. At the very least lawmakers will need to avoid an end-of-year government shutdown by passing a full-year CR or a short-term one that punts the issue to next Congress.
However, that doesn’t mean Congress should pass a budget at any cost. The president is seeking $1.5 trillion in military spending—more than the height of Pentagon spending in World War II, adjusted for inflation. That includes a $1.15 trillion discretionary request and a bonus $350 billion that would come through reconciliation. Congress should reject this on both fronts. As we detailed this summer, there are plenty of opportunities for cuts to wasteful weapons programs, and with the national debt surpassing $40 trillion this year, Pentagon spending sprees are increasingly unsustainable. The discretionary request alone represents a $250 billion increase in base Pentagon spending. If Congress hopes to clear a spending package in the lame duck, that number will have to migrate back down to earth. And if Democrats unite behind growing calls to prohibit funding for the Iran War in any spending deal, that could complicate passage as well.
Beyond spending, lawmakers face pressure in the lame duck to plant parochial payouts and feather their own partisan nests. The Senate is under pressure to speed past the advice part of their role and move straight to consenting to potentially dozens of new federal judges. The Armed Services Committees are negotiating final text of the National Defense Authorization Act, the current versions of which authorize excessive Pentagon spending in line with the president’s request. A last ditch effort to re-authorize farm bill programs that were not extended as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is in the works. Lawmakers have floated yet more special interest tax cuts. Even using a third reconciliation bill to raise the debt ceiling through the end of the president’s term is being discussed.
Yet little of this needs to be done. Voters have provided the 119th Congress with its performance review. It wasn’t good. Instead of attempting to squeeze the golden goose of one-party control for last minute gifts, lawmakers, both the lame ducks and the ones coming back next Congress, should spend the rest of the year seeking to do no harm. You had your chance. Voters have moved on. The best course of action for this Congress is probably also the most likely. Pass the buck, and the bill, to the next guy.
