Speaker Mike Johnson is addressing the British parliament in London. The Senate is out, so all of the action is in the House. Members return this evening.
The House will be very busy, possibly even chaotic, over the next few days. The week will be dominated by three somewhat interlocking dynamics: consideration of the final FY2026 minibus funding package, which includes the Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS and Transportation-HUD bills; tariffs; and member absences. The latter can impact everything.
The House will also consider a Congressional Review Act resolution from Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) that disapproves of the withdrawal of federal lands in Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties, Minn., from potential mining or mineral leases.
Government funding. Somewhat amazingly, the House is on the brink of passing the entire slate of FY2026 funding bills 10 days ahead of the Jan. 30 deadline. Party leaders aren’t there yet, but they’re nearing that point.
As we scooped Monday evening, the House GOP leadership is now looking to load up this package with other measures: renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and a trade preference bill for Haiti. Both of these measures have bipartisan support.
There’s also discussion about adding some health-care provisions, including measures dealing with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). It’s not yet clear how Republican leaders will handle this.
But we will say that nothing is easy about adding unrelated measures to a funding bill, especially with this razor-thin GOP majority. Johnson has been hesitant to load up funding bills in the past because of this.
Even without the extraneous measures, passing these funding bills is no easy lift. As of very early this morning, appropriators still hadn’t released the final minibus. The text for this package was supposed to be out over the weekend, but there are always last-minute delays as staffers go through them line-by-line.
The massive package will contain plenty of partisan flashpoints that raise concerns for groups of members in both parties. In fact, it may be particularly challenging for House Republicans to pass the rule for the funding package, which we’ll get into below.
DHS funding will be a tough vote for Democrats. Democrats were turning against a full-year spending bill for the department after ICE’s shootings in Minneapolis, and pressure from outsider groups has only grown. Plus, Republicans pushed through tens of billions of dollars in funding for DHS in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which makes this vote even more problematic.
Republicans are counting on Democrats to get this final minibus package over the finish line and avoid coming up against the Jan. 30 funding deadline. But skepticism over DHS combined with the last-minute add-ons complicate everything.
Tariffs. President Donald Trump’s trade wars are on the verge of causing an even bigger mess on Capitol Hill, where Republicans remain deeply divided over tariffs.
All at once, three big factors are forcing Congress to confront the tariff fight.
1) Trump announced he’ll impose hefty new tariffs on European countries as part of his push for U.S. control of Greenland. This has triggered bipartisan alarm.
2) All of Washington is waiting on the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trump’s tariff regime, which will undoubtedly have ripple effects on the Hill.
3) House GOP leaders may not be able to extend their blockade on votes challenging Trump’s tariffs. That could prove to be a massive headache for House Republicans.
The House GOP leadership has tucked language into several rules to stop resolutions opposing tariffs from coming to the floor. But in the fall, a small band of Republicans threatened to sink a rule over the prohibition and won concessions. That ban expires at the end of January.
If House GOP leaders don’t extend this provision, a raft of Democratic-led resolutions could come to the floor challenging Trump’s tariffs. Those would be incredibly painful votes for the House GOP. Just look at how it’s going in the Senate.
Yet it’s not clear House GOP leaders can get the votes for any proposed rule including the tariff language. Some Republican moderates are fed up with Trump’s tariffs and the GOP leadership’s maneuvering to restrict votes. Trump’s Greenland threats haven’t helped.
“I would disagree with putting it in there,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told us. “Would I vote no? Probable.”
Attendance. Attendance has been a major issue for House Republicans as they struggle with their narrow, two-seat majority. Last week, a number of Republican lawmakers missed votes for a variety of reasons. The GOP leadership does expect Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) and Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) to return.
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) has regularly skipped floor votes as he campaigns for the GOP Senate nomination in Texas. Hunt has in-person events scheduled for this evening in Lubbock and Lake Travis, but nothing else until Friday. So hope springs eternal for the GOP leadership with the second-term lawmaker from Houston.
It’s not clear whether Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) will return to D.C. this week due to personal issues.
