Lame Duck Session Begins
Election Day 2024 has come and gone. Republicans have all but officially achieved a trifecta – control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.
Both the House and Senate return today for the lame duck session. Republicans controlling all three levers next year also impacts the outlook of the lame duck session this year. However, there are policies that must get done: funding the government before the December 20 deadline, extending the Farm Bill, and passing the National Defense Authorization Act.
In every policy conversation during lame duck, each side will need to consider whether negotiating a compromise now is ultimately politically better than what they could achieve next year. Republicans will want as much bandwidth as possible in early 2025 so that they can quickly turn to advancing President Trump’s agenda without having to also resolve 2024 issues, but they will have to decide whether that desire to clear the decks outweighs sacrifices they would have to make in a lame duck to reach agreement with Democrats. Democrats, on the other hand, will have to decide if they can accept the compromises they would need to make to reach agreement with Republicans during the lame duck, versus letting Republicans politically “own” those decisions in 2025. Neither side is likely to be in a negotiating mood, and there may be very little compromise in the lame duck. As a result, the lame duck session probably will produce a short-term continuing resolution for government funding and then punt all other major policy activity into the 119th Congress, where Republicans will have full control.
If that is the approach taken, the traditional healthcare extenders likely will be included with the same deadline as the overall continuing resolution. Most of the traditional healthcare extenders are currently funded or authorized through December 31, 2024 (a complete list of the healthcare extenders that need resolution is available here). Among the more prominent healthcare extenders are the Medicare telehealth flexibilities, which are likely to be extended.
Beyond the extenders, very little additional healthcare policy is likely to be undertaken in the lame duck session of Congress. Instead, various policies will be debated again in the 119th Congress when Republicans hold control.
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