Welcome to December! The House and Senate will be busy this month — certainly busier than they were in October and November — as they try to pass more government funding bills, come up with some sort of healthcare plan that may address expiring Obamacare subsidies, pass the annual defense policy bill and tackle a slew of other issues, all before their Christmas break, which is set to begin on December 19 or 20.
Here's a quick look at where things stand on a couple of those priorities.
Funding the government: The deal to end the shutdown fight included three of the 12 full-year spending bills and extended funding for the rest of the federal government until the end of January. That means Congress still has nine annual funding bills to deal with for fiscal year 2026, which started in October.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly has been looking to package the four appropriations bills funding the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and Justice into one big “minibus.” But he told reporters Monday that the Senate might not have time this month to pass such a package given objections from lawmakers who would have to give unanimous consent to speed the process.
“It would be great if, in fact, we could get the approps process going and actually have a package on the floor,” Thune told reporters Monday afternoon. “Whether we conclude it before the Christmas holiday or not — at least it would be queued up and ready to go in January.”
House Republican appropriators reportedly are looking to strike a deal with the Senate on a smaller bundle of bills that leaves Defense and Labor-HHS-Education for later.
Healthcare subsidies, or broader reforms: As part of the deal to end the shutdown, Thune promised Democrats a vote this month on a healthcare bill they draft. It’s not clear yet what that will be. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN that his party is still discussing what it will include in the measure as it looks to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire in just weeks. “I’ve talked to every member of my caucus over the weekend. We are united in extending the ACA, because if we don’t, it does such damage to people, and we’re going to discuss it in our caucus tomorrow, but we’re totally united,” Schumer said.
The White House floated its own plan calling for a two-year extension of the subsidies paired with GOP reforms to tighten eligibility but backpedaled after GOP lawmakers objected. “It even appears that the Trump administration was ready to put forth a plan that would at least have been worthy of consideration, and that Mike Johnson tanked it,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference Monday.
Trump last week told reporters that he doesn’t really want to extend the subsidies but acknowledged it might be required. “Somebody said I want to extend them for two years. I don't want to extend them for two years. I'd rather not extend them at all,” Trump said, before going on to say that “some kind of an extension may be necessary” to buy time “to get something else done.”
Some lawmakers are still working to hash out a bipartisan compromise to prevent some 22 million Americans from being hit with higher premium payments or a loss of coverage. Lawmakers in both parties reportedly agree that any path to a deal will have to go through Trump. “There’s widespread skepticism that Republicans will agree to any plan that isn’t fully endorsed by Trump,” Politico notes.
It’s not clear yet if the president will get behind a compromise — and some Republicans won’t vote to strengthen Obamacare even if he does. If Trump doesn’t back a deal, Democrats’ promised Senate vote this month will likely end up being a messaging exercise and Republicans may push ahead with another vote on a plan of their own, if they can agree on one.