What to Expect as Congress Returns to Session This Week

September is here, which means Congress is back in session with a lot on its plate.

Both chambers return Sept. 2 after a month in their districts with constituents. As is usually the case, government funding is set to expire at the end of this month, and addressing that will take up a large share of Congress’s attention.

Lawmakers also have a slate of other priorities after a month of executive actions—from federal spending cuts to executive nominations—that kept the usually slow August news cycle busy.

Here’s what to look for.

Government Funding

Funding is scheduled to run out on Sept. 30 under a stopgap spending bill approved by Congress in March.

Both chambers will need to pass, and President Donald Trump sign, a total of 12 funding bills to avert a complete or partial government shutdown. So far, the Senate has passed an initial draft of three of these, while the House has passed two. Only one, a bill to fund military construction, has passed both chambers.

Lawmakers will also need to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill to set military policy.

The toughest challenge for the spending bills will be the Senate, where Republicans will need the support of seven Democrats to overcome a filibuster.

Despite that, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has called for a “less bipartisan” appropriations process.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) disagreed, telling reporters, “It’s going to take 60 [votes] to fund the government.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have called for pursuing “a bipartisan path” on appropriations.

Republicans may need to resort to passing a stopgap bill to fund the government.

Rescissions

Lawmakers will also address a White House request to cut $4.9 billion in foreign aid, a request known as a rescission.

Trump proposed the cuts on Aug. 28, and the White House released the request on Aug. 29.

The funds requested for cancellation were allocated to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is in the process of being shuttered by the Trump administration.

The request is authorized under the Impoundment Control Act, which allows presidential requests that Congress rescind funding for a federal agency or project. Congress then has 45 days to approve the request.

It’s the second such package presented to Congress. In July, the Senate approved $9 billion in cuts requested by the White House.

However, unlike its predecessor, the current request is known as a “pocket rescission,” which can enable the president to cancel funding without the approval of Congress by submitting a request late in the fiscal year.

Vought has defended the system, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that pocket rescissions are one of the administration’s executive tools.

“It’s been used before,” he said.

Because the $4.9 billion request was released late in the fiscal year, the request will be automatically allowed to proceed if Congress doesn’t vote to reject it before the Sept. 30 funding deadline.

Trump Nominations

Senate Republicans will also continue their efforts to confirm Trump’s executive appointees, which have been slowed by Democratic procedural moves.

While it takes a simple majority to confirm nominees, Senate rules make it arduous to confirm nominees one by one.

Unanimous consent, where there is no objection from a senator, allows a nominee to be confirmed without a roll call vote. Democrats have refused to provide such consent, running out the clock on their time for each nominee.

That has led some Senate Republicans, including Thune, to contemplate changing the Senate rules in order to allow for nominees to be confirmed expeditiously.

“I think they’re desperately in need of change,” Thune said. “I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations, is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.”

Democrats have further blocked nominations through refusal to return their “blue slips,” a tradition that allows senators to approve or block a judicial or U.S. attorney nomination for their home state.

Trump has challenged the process, saying on Aug. 25 that blue slips “make it impossible” for him to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney.

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has rejected Trump’s request to do away with the blue slip.

“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley wrote in an Aug. 25 post on X.

Washington Federalization

Lawmakers could also be asked to extend Trump’s authority to control Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Under Section 740 of the Home Rule Act of 1973, the president can take control of the local police force for up to 48 hours and can renew the authority for up to 30 days. Afterward, Congress would need to sign off on continued federalization.

Trump made such a move in August.

The White House has been ambivalent about asking Congress for an extension.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration “will re-evaluate … and make further decisions after this 30-day period is up.”

“[During the 30 days,] our entire focus is making sure that this is the most efficient operation possible, and that we are removing as many criminals from the streets, and we are cleaning up D.C. as best as we can,” Leavitt said.

In another executive action on Aug. 11, Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard to the city.

Any move by Congress to extend Trump’s authority would require the consent of at least seven Democrats in the Senate.

Discharge Petitions

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could also be forced to allow votes on a bill to release sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case files to the public and on a bill to ban stock trading by sitting members of Congress.

Both bills could be brought to the floor using a discharge petition, a parliamentary maneuver that enables rank-and-file members to bypass leadership and force a vote on a bill. The process requires that 218 lawmakers, a majority of the House, sign on.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is attempting to use a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill ordering the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files within 30 days. Several Democrats have signed onto the effort.

The issue of congressional stock trading could also come to the forefront as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) plans to use a discharge petition to force a vote on her bill to ban congressional stock trading.

The idea itself has wide bipartisan support: Trump, Johnson, Jeffries, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have all expressed agreement with banning the practice.

However, Luna’s bills landed after several bills on the subject had already been introduced in both chambers, which have been the subject of months of discussions between Republicans and Democrats.