WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress returns Monday to a changed Washington, the Democrats having trounced Republicans in the midterm elections, but with President Donald Trump doubling down on his political threats despite the landmark GOP losses.
Newly elected lawmakers arrived on Capitol Hill over the weekend, creating a jumble of split-screen moments reflective of the new political landscape. Dozens of jubilant Democrats, families and suitcases in tow for
freshman orientation, appeared emboldened by the party's sweep of power. The trickle of Republicans coming in spoke soberly of the GOP's vast challenges ahead.
“This country sent a clear message from coast to coast, and that message is they’ve had enough of what’s gone on," said Rep.-elect Daniel Biss, D-Ill. "They’ve had enough of Donald Trump. They’ve had enough of MAGA. And critically, they are ready to transform who holds power, and what they do with it.”
Republican Rep.-elect Chris Stigall of Missouri said it's clear that voters sent a loud message, "and I hope, as a new member, I can be on the ground level of figuring out how we can reconnect.”
For starters, he said, the GOP needs to understand that the economy is not where it needs to be. “Six-dollar diesel, I will tell you, for the farmers in my district, that is a tough pill to swallow.”
But first, it's out with the old before the new Congress takes over in January.
The House and Senate are in session for just six short weeks of a lame-duck sprint to finish up the Republican agenda before the GOP majorities come to an end, making way for the change of power on Jan. 3, 2027.
Leadership elections and a government funding package are all priorities ahead.
One first order of business is expected to be a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his leadership at the Pentagon.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie pushed the impeachment resolution forward over the objections of House GOP leadership as momentum grows to hold Hegseth accountable for the Iran war, which many Republicans blame for the party's midterm election wipeout.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent a vote on Hegseth’s impeachment in September and abruptly halted proceedings by sending lawmakers home early.
But it’s unclear Johnson, who remains close to Trump, will be able to slow the drive for impeachment now, unless he decides to adjourn the chamber again.
Trump defended Hegseth to reporters on Sunday night before he flew back to Washington after spending the weekend at his Florida home.
“He’s guilty of two things, basically winning two wars,” Trump said. “I believe we saved the Middle East and Israel combined. And it’s awfully hard to say let’s impeach somebody who did that.”
Democrats are expected to widely support the impeachment resolution and a number of Republicans have signaled they could join them.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on ABC.
Jeffries said it's time for Hegseth to go, and that the secretary “has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran."
The halls of the Capitol are expected to swell this week with the collision of incoming and outgoing lawmakers, as the newcomers attend orientation sessions while the retiring lawmakers start to clear out.
At the same time, Trump has tapped top aide Stephen Miller, the hard-right architect of much of the White House’s domestic policy agenda, as his new chief of staff. Miller takes the helm Monday in what is expected to be the start of a more direct confrontation with the Congress.
Republicans in both the House and Senate are planning to hold their leadership elections this week in closed-door meetings that could end up being blame-casting sessions about what went wrong in the elections.
House Republicans are bracing for a contentious leadership battle after Johnson decided to step aside, setting up a showdown between the No. 2 Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the brawling former wrestling coach allied with the hard-right conservatives.
The two men had confronted one another when trying to become House speaker three years ago, but neither was able to win enough support from the Republican rank and file, leading to Johnson's rise. With the House Republican numbers now shrunken, lawmakers could seek wholesale change in leadership.
In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune is expected to retain his job as Republican leader, though in the minority as Democrats flipped Republican-held seats, including milestone wins in Texas and Kansas.
Democrats are expected to hold their elections later this month. At least two Democrats — Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas — have declined to publicly support Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer's bid to be the majority leader, but no challenger for the job has emerged.
“I think we need somebody who’s going to bring us together and somebody who’s going to -- somebody who’s going to come with fresh ideas to what we’re doing,” Hamilton said Sunday on CNN.
Jeffries, who is on track to make history as the nation's first Black speaker of the House, faces skepticism from voices in the party's left wing.
“Every single member here is going to have their individual vote,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a Capitol press conference Sunday, flanked by newly elected lawmakers, including a handful from the Democratic Socialists of America.
“What we talked about at orientation today was not about any individual person, but about policy,” Casar said. “How we set a progressive path forward.”
The Republican majority had high hopes for a legislative run to secure party priorities in the final weeks of the session, but those plans now seem doubtful.
Congress still needs to fund the government by mid-December or risk another federal shutdown if the money lapses.
It also hopes to pass the annual defense bill, which sets policy for the Pentagon and delivers pay-raises for the troops, and has been approved by Congress essentially every year since World War II. But this year, the defense package is tangled over progressive pressure to cut money for the Iran war and military aid to Israel over the war on Gaza.
The Senate hopes Monday to launch votes on legislation to speed permitting reviews for new energy infrastructure projects. Trump in a social media post Sunday pushed senators to act.
And there is pressure on the Senate to swiftly confirm Trump's judicial nominees before Republicans lose control of the chamber in January.
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
