Congress returned to Washington on Monday, November 9, 2026, for a lame-duck session of about five weeks — the first two of them a legislative period, the rest given over to orientation for the members elected last week. The incoming 120th Congress is sworn in on January 3, and when it is, both chambers change hands: Democrats won majorities in the House and the Senate.
That leaves the current Republican majorities with a narrow window and a long list. ABC News reported that at least 109 incoming House freshmen will be seated in January, the largest class to arrive before a Congress convenes since the 73rd in 1933. At least 17 senators are leaving, and the Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi have still not been called.
The mood is not that of a victory lap. "It's going to feel like a funeral," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York told reporters, by Yahoo News's account. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, asked how the chamber would fit the workload into the calendar, answered that the "first thing we need to do is make a motion to add a 13th month to the calendar."
The December 11 cliff
The hard date is December 11. The stopgap measure that has carried the government since the fiscal year ended on September 30 expires after that day, and no agreement to replace it exists. One House Republican, speaking anonymously to Yahoo News, expects another short-term extension that would push the fight into February or March — which would hand the problem to the Democratic majorities rather than solve it.
Some Democrats have signaled they intend to use the war in Iran as leverage in the spending talks, a position that would turn a funding bill into a vote on the war.
The rest of the list
Four other items are queued behind the money:
- The annual defense policy bill, which has to pass before the end of 2026 and where disputes over funding the Iran campaign could stall it;
- Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which needs reauthorization;
- The farm bill, which has already expired;
- Permitting reform, which faced a Senate procedural vote on Monday that will show whether the negotiations are still alive.
Senate Republicans also want to confirm President Donald Trump's remaining nominees while they still hold the majority. And the debt limit arrives in January, just as control shifts.
Two leadership votes on Tuesday
Speaker Mike Johnson will not run for Republican leader in the next Congress. Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan are competing for the post in a House Republican election on Tuesday. Senate Republicans hold their own closed-door leadership vote Tuesday morning, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed for minority leader.
House Democrats vote on November 18. Hakeem Jeffries is expected to be nominated for speaker, and Chuck Schumer is lining up support to lead the Senate majority.
Impeachment and the Epstein petition
Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost his Republican primary this year, is expected to reintroduce a privileged resolution carrying eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a procedural route that can force a floor showdown as early as midweek. Trump said last Thursday that he intends to keep Hegseth in the job.
"This is not about me, but of course the other side, they're obsessed," Hegseth said of the effort.
Massie is also two signatures short on a separate discharge petition, on the Epstein Transparency Act II, which stood at 216 of the 218 needed.
Vice President JD Vance has said publicly that the Iran war contributed to the Republican losses, an argument Trump has pushed back on. Whatever the diagnosis, the arithmetic of the next two weeks is the same: a Republican majority with five weeks left, and a December 11 deadline it has not yet found a way to meet.
Reporting from ABC News and Yahoo News.
