Congress has left Washington until after the midterm elections, punting the fight over government funding to a short and crowded post-election session, according to reports.
Lawmakers are now in recess until after the November 3 elections, in which control of Congress is at stake. Before leaving, Congress passed a continuing resolution that extends current government funding levels through December 11, avoiding a shutdown ahead of the midterms — but the hard work of writing full-year spending bills remains undone.
According to reports, none of the 12 annual appropriations bills had passed both chambers when lawmakers left town, and only three had cleared the House. The Senate left without taking up the House-passed funding measures, while the House Speaker released members two weeks early despite protests from members who wanted to advance AI safety legislation and a second discharge petition on the Epstein files.
When lawmakers return, they will face an unusually compressed calendar. Congress must complete the remaining appropriations bills — covering areas including defense, homeland security, labor, health and education, transportation and financial services — before the December 11 deadline, or pass yet another stopgap. Partisan tensions over the administration’s immigration enforcement policies, particularly around Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are expected to complicate negotiations, according to reports.
How the November 3 results reshape the balance of power will heavily influence those talks, with Republicans and Democrats each watching the outcome for leverage in the end-of-year funding fight.
