Dear Congress, your deadline is nigh

 By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch 

The trouble with lame-duck congressional sessions is that they’re so short and too long.

In 10 days, Congress will run out of funds to keep the government operating through the holidays without action or a strategy (preferably both). There was talk last month of extending the deadline again — to March.

The two parties expect to limp toward a solution by Dec. 20, which is the government shutdown deadline they established to give themselves time to resolve impasses, but negotiators have yet to iron out big questions, including how to replenish depleted federal disaster relief funding — and by how much? Disaster victims in numerous states are waiting. President Biden proposed $100 billion to include the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster fund and Small Business Administration loans. House conservatives say Biden’s number is too high, and they object to adding to the federal deficit.

Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans are at odds over how to sequence President-elect Trump’s legislative ambitions next year to pocket speedy success with fewer trip wires. The House GOP thinks major tax legislation should be the marquee triumph to show to Trump voters. Some Senate Republicans, including Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), argue that border and immigration changes using budget reconciliation as the vehicle should be Congress’s first order of business in 2025.

Why is sequencing important to incoming presidents? Honeymoons last barely two years. Trump will be a lame-duck president shortly after he’s sworn in. And midterm elections can upend Washington politics. 

Former President Clinton spent his first year on health care legislation that failed to come to a vote. After health care and other battles, Republicans emerged in 1994 from decades in the political wilderness to control the House. The Senate flipped, too. Clinton later mused that he should have tackled welfare reform first rather than health care and earned some GOP trust. He wound up signing the Republicans’ welfare measure.

Former President Obama also was advised by veteran Democrats that he would not find Republican allies in his first year to support his ObamaCare version of health coverage and reforms, but he spent 18 months searching for GOP backing. He did not find it. Democrats in the 2010 midterms met with a “shellacking” from voters, Obama conceded, and he accepted blame.

Defense (and more): Over the weekend, congressional negotiators released a mammoth 1,800-page measure known as the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which includes key priorities. But this year, the exercise has faced serious roadblocks between and among parties, including GOP amendments that focus more on cultural political divisions than arguments over war and peace.

The $883.7 billion bill includes widely supported provisions, such as strengthening the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region. It also includes a 19.5 percent pay raise for junior-enlisted troops, a major new proposal this year. It also includes amendments that Democrats oppose, including specific restrictions on transgender health care for children of service members.