The final weeks of Democratic control of the Senate will begin on Wednesday ahead of packed legislative agenda likely to range from funding military operations in Iraq and Syria, tackling the Ebola outbreak in west Africa and rewriting the laws that govern the National Security Agency.
But the most contentious issue Democrats need to deal with in the five weeks they have left in the majority is the list of more than 150 judicial and executive nominees that the White House is desperate to see approved.
Both the Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives reconvene on Wednesday after midterm elections that reshaped the political landscape in Washington, extending the GOP’s power on Capitol Hill to both chambers in Congress.
Republicans do not take control of the Senate, however, until January, with the clock ticking on Democratic control of the lame-duck session.
Barack Obama’s administration has expressed deep frustration over the backlog in nominees and the outgoing Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, is under pressure to push through as many appointments as possible before the party relinquishes power. Among the nominees awaiting approval are 16 proposed federal district court judges, more than 30 ambassadors waiting to be posted to countries such as Vietnam and the Bahamas and a slew of mid-level administration appointees.
Republicans argue the most high-profile and important nominee – Loretta Lynch, the president’s choice to replace Eric Holder as attorney general – should be held back until they take control of the chamber in 2015.
A supreme court decision earlier this year also prevents Obama from pushing through appointments during the congressional recess. Senate Republicans cannot block presidential nominees made when the Senate is in session because of a recent change in the rules process implemented by Democrats that means appointments need only secure simple majority, instead of a 60-vote threshold.
But Republicans, who are particularly opposed to Obama and his Democratic allies filling the federal judiciary with lifetime appointees, can and have delayed the appointments process, and aides on both sides say that Reid could seek to forge a compromise with the Republicans’ soon-to-be majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
Any such deal could involve Democrats agreeing to hold back Lynch’s confirmation, until January, in exchange for Republicans approving the less controversial nominees stuck in the backlog.
The chief priority for both parties in both the Senate and House will be to pass a spending bill that will fund the government beyond 11 December, possibly with a major piece of legislation that appropriates spending levels for the 2015 fiscal year.
A slew of soon-to-expire tax breaks also need to be re-authorised, and the Pentagon is asking for fresh authorisation – and additional funding – for combating Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The Obama administration has requested $5.6bn to pay for additional noncombat troops in Iraq and extra munitions.
The president has also requested $6.2bn in emergency money to confront Ebola in west Africa, a move that would strengthen his hand when persuading other countries – particularly China – to help deal with the disease at its source.
Meanwhile, more than 17 months after the whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the breadth and depth of surveillance conducted by the NSA, the bipartisan piece of legislation intended to usher in a new, post-9/11 era of reforms for the intelligence community is still languishing on Capitol Hill.
Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the judiciary committee and shepherded the USA Freedom Act, has said he is determined to see the bill put to a vote and passed.
“There is no excuse for inaction, as the important reforms in this bipartisan bill are strongly supported by the technology industry, the privacy and civil liberties community, and national security professionals in the intelligence community,” Leahy said last month.
