Congress works best on a deadline. The need to have the threat of impending doom looming before anything can get done is honestly one of the most relatable things about America’s lawmakers. But the dwindling calendar is doing little to spur the legislative branch into action on some major issues.
If this Monday is included, there are four legislative days until the Obamacare subsidies lapse and 16 legislative days before the federal government plunges into another shutdown.
Two dates ought to be circled in red on the calendars of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Dec. 31 is when a set of expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies expire. Without new legislation, health-care costs will skyrocket for millions of their members’ constituents.
Jan. 30 is the expiration date of the short-term funding bill lawmakers passed to reopen the government in November. Absent another continuing resolution or an appropriations bill for the rest of the fiscal year, we’ll find ourselves right back in another shutdown.
The dwindling calendar is doing little to spur the legislative branch into action on some major issues.
Given that the last shutdown was the longest in federal history — and tied to the expiring Obamacare subsidies — you might expect that lawmakers would feel some urgency to deal with these problems. Maybe even make some sort of extended effort to hammer out a workable solution before the year ends.
You’d be wrong.
Congress won’t be around when the Obamacare subsidies’ funding runs dry. This is the last week on the House and Senate’s legislative calendars before everyone clears out of Washington. And it’s not even a five-day workweek for most of them, as the House calendar shows. Lawmakers tend to pack up on Thursday nights so they can fly back to their home states on Friday.
And with the new year starting on a Thursday, don’t expect legislators to rush back to the Capitol. The Senate is scheduled to resume work on Monday, Jan. 5. The House – enjoying a leisurely start to 2026, apparently – is set to reconvene on Jan. 6. To the House’s (very little credit), members are expected to stick around that Friday. But thanks to the way lawmakers have devised their calendar, there’s precious little time in January to address the crucial funding bills.
According to the Senate’s 2026 legislative schedule, Jan. 19 marks the beginning of another “State Work Period,” which is what the upper chamber calls its vacation time. (There may be some work done in their local offices, but a recess is a recess by any other name.) That covers the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday and the rest of the following week (which, incidentally, is way more time off than most working Americans get).
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Meanwhile, the House’s 2026 calendar has lawmakers taking off only MLK Day during that period. They’ll still get their rest in though — their “District Work Period” will last the full next week, which is the last week of the month, which is when the government is poised to run out of money again.
Don’t forget that during the previous shutdown, Johnson sent his members home to their districts rather than, say, stay in Washington and work on the funding bills that would serve as a long-term solution. (Time management isn’t exactly a strong suit on the Hill.)
Hayes Brown
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW Daily.
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