Congress returns from Thanksgiving with a Christmas tree lighting scheduled for Tuesday and lengthy to-do list before the next holiday break, even though there’s no budget deadline until the end of January.
The tree lighting is an annual tradition, with bipartisan members of the Nevada delegation expected to join Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for the festivities. This year’s tree comes from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in the Silver State.
For the moment, the most likely big bill on the move is the National Defense Authorization Act.
Leaders of the Armed Services committees are reported to have finished their work on a compromise fiscal 2026 defense policy bill, and bill text is likely to be unveiled this week. House floor consideration could come next week.
That is not the only major legislative business for December. There is also the question of whether President Donald Trump and the Congress will ultimately act before the end of the year to address increases in health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act.
In the meantime, senior GOP aides said the Senate could work to tee up another package of Trump’s nominees for en bloc consideration starting this week, using the process developed earlier this year.
Also in the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could try again to bring up a package of fiscal 2026 spending bills anchored by the Pentagon spending bill. He would need consent to add additional measures, including the fiscal 2026 Labor-HHS-Education measure.
The House floor schedule features several bills from the Education and the Workforce Committee related to foreign influence in the U.S. education system. That includes a measure designed to ensure that parents have the ability to review educational materials funded through the “government of a foreign country or a foreign entity of concern.”
House committees will be especially busy this week. The Financial Services Committee holds a hearing Tuesday with financial regulators scheduled to testify, including Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill and National Credit Union Association Chairman Kyle Hauptman. The committee announced that several pieces of legislation may be discussed, including discussion drafts related to bank merger oversight.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has a markup scheduled for Tuesday on a long list of bills, including a proposal from Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., that would add a citizenship question to the Census and seek to exclude noncitizens from apportionment of congressional seats after the 2030 Census.
The agenda also includes proposals related to the federal workforce and federal contractors, which Chairman James R. Comer, R-Ky., highlighted in a Friday statement announcing the markup.
“The House Oversight Committee is dedicated to ensuring that Americans’ voices are not diluted and that they can be employed in the federal workforce without undue burdens and other hinderances,” he said.
On the Senate side, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday morning focused on health care affordability. A Senate Judiciary subcommittee holds a hearing the same day on a potentially explosive topic: the impeachment of federal judges.
John M. Donnelly contributed to this report.
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