Congress Returns To Capitol Hill Amid GOP Gains, Faces Key Funding And Defense Legislation In Final Days

For the first time since Donald Trump became President-elect for the second time, members of Congress were back at work in the nation's capital Tuesday.

With Democrats losing control of the Senate and very likely falling short in their effort to flip the House, Republicans have high hopes for what they might accomplish in the next Congress. But the current Congress, in what remains of this now lame duck session, still has important work to do.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) gaveled the House back into session Tuesday morning, one week after voters delivered what he says is a clear mandate.

"This leadership will hit the ground running," Johnson said in a press conference on the House steps, "to deliver President Trump's agenda in the 119th Congress."

But the 118th Congress has unfinished business: first and foremost, lawmakers will have to fund the government beyond the December 20 cut-off date set by the continuing resolution they passed in September.

"A number of my colleagues say we should just fund the government past Joe Biden retiring and go through a mighty battle then," said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK3) in an interview Tuesday.

But Lucas feels that would be a mistake and that funding agencies for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year should be done by this Congress, so that President Trump -- once he's sworn in on January 20 -- can focus on bigger things.

"Let's not get gummed up in the dollars and cents," Lucas said, "and miss our opportunity to address the tax code and foreign policy and defense policy and all these other very important issues."

Other important legislation the current Congress needs to pass is the annual Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and an extension of the Farm Bill.

Rep. Lucas is also hopeful the Senate will take up two reauthorizations that have already been approved in the House. One would reauthorize NASA and boost the nation's space program.

"It's not the old space race in the 50s and 60s where it was about who could plant a flag," Lucas explained. "This is about who controls mineral resources, who controls the military high ground, who leads this planet in centuries to come."

Lucas is also urging his Senate counterparts to reauthorization the 2017 Weather Act, which he says has made a significant difference in the accuracy and timeliness of severe weather forecasting.

"We've moved the average warning time on tornadoes, for instance, from 11 minutes to 44," Lucas stated. "That's life or death in places like Oklahoma."