“We keep hearing from the leadership we’re going to clear the decks in the lame duck”

Senate GOP aides say that’s the message from the leader, who could face opposition from conservative lawmakers who want to block any non-emergency measures in the window between Election Day and the start of the new Congress in January.

“We keep hearing from the leadership we’re going to clear the decks in the lame duck,” said a senior GOP aide.

Under this scenario, the Senate Republican leadership would prefer to pass an omnibus spending bill or a year-long stopgap funding measure that would keep the federal government operating until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

It could also have implications for a package extending a variety of expired tax provisions. Some House Republicans would like to delay action on the so-called tax extenders package to 2015 in the hope that a Congress under unified GOP control could make some of the fixes permanent.