Republican leaders are eager to wrap up their work and head home for the year, but many of the bills on the agenda have the potential to force the GOP to renegotiate policies within a few months when a new Congress and president are in office.
Perhaps the biggest issue for Republicans early next year will be deciding a spending plan for 2017. House and Senate leaders are negotiating the final details of stopgap spending bill to keep the government open past the current Dec. 9 deadline. There is no real question that Congress will avert a government shutdown, but leaders are still debating how long into next year it should keep the government funded so that the new Congress and Trump can hammer out a final spending deal for the 2017 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.
House leaders announced before Thanksgiving that Trump and his team had asked Congress to prepare a spending bill that would keep the government open at current spending levels through the end of March. That measure would allow Trump to quickly put his own stamp on government spending. But Senate leaders worried that it would be difficult early next year to write a new spending bill while simultaneously working to vet and approve Trump’s cabinet appointments and some of the party’s to legislative priorities.
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