CRS Reports – Lame Duck Sessions of Congress

With the House and Senate scheduled to meet on Monday, it is appropriate to look at the history of Lame Duck sessions of the US Congress. To this end, the Congressional Research Service published two reports this week looking at the topic:

Lame Duck Sessions of Congress, 1935-2020 (74th-116th Congresses), and

The Enactment of Appropriations Measures During Lame Duck Sessions,

In addition to the FY 2023 spending bill, the Congress still needs to complete work on the National Defense Authorization Act and a number of other ‘must pass’ authorization bills, including the intelligence and Coast Guard authorization bills. We will probably see a number of these bills folded into the final spending bill.

Additionally, the 118^th Congress will informally begin work on organization, including the selection of party leaders.