Lame-Duck Congress Faces Dec. 11 Funding Deadline and Up to $1 Trillion in Add-On Spending Proposals

Since gross federal debt crossed $40 trillion on Aug. 18, the debt limit has sat at $41.1 trillion, the ceiling Congress set in July 2025. Now the lame-duck session has opened, and the fight over what to do before the new Congress is sworn in is taking shape.

The first hard deadline is Dec. 11. A continuing resolution enacted in September locks in fiscal 2026 spending levels for most programs through that date. The House has passed 3 of the 12 fiscal 2027 appropriations bills. The Senate has passed none, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).

At minimum, lawmakers must pass a full-year or short-term stopgap to avoid a shutdown, per Taxpayers for Common Sense. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins is among the committee members not returning next year, so this is her last chance to shape a budget.

The add-on list

The CRFB warns that lawmakers could try to load the year-end deal with extras. It estimates the proposals floating around would cost $200 billion or more on a temporary basis, or up to nearly $1 trillion if made permanent.

The biggest item is defense. In June, President Trump requested more than $70 billion in military funding, mostly for the Iran war. He also wants $350 billion in mandatory defense money as part of a $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal 2027. The CRFB says that adds up to as much as $420 billion in extra defense spending that could ride on a reconciliation package.

Taxpayers for Common Sense puts the $1.5 trillion request at $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending plus the $350 billion through reconciliation. The group argues Congress should reject it, noting it exceeds the World War II peak of Pentagon spending when adjusted for inflation.

The highway bill is another. The surface transportation provisions of the 2021 infrastructure law expire Dec. 11. The bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act would reauthorize them for five years. The CRFB estimates it would add $90 billion to deficits over a decade: $100 billion in higher spending, offset by only $12 billion in new fees on electric vehicles.

The debt-limit question

Congress does not have to act on the ceiling this year. The CRFB says it must do so by mid-2027 to avoid potential default. The Bipartisan Policy Center expects the Treasury to hit the limit between late winter and mid-summer 2027, according to Foreign Policy In Focus. The National Taxpayers Union puts its central X-date in February 2028.

Brandon Arnold, executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, says that is the problem. "We don't have to deal with the debt ceiling technically until next year. So people aren't talking about it quite enough now," he said. He argues Republicans should consider using budget reconciliation, which needs only a simple majority in the Senate, while they still control Congress. Waiting for Democrats, he said, would complicate any effort to attach spending restraints.

The CRFB says Congress may also try to raise the limit in the lame duck, but it urges lawmakers not to pass unpaid-for spending or tax cuts in the session.

The Iran war is the flashpoint. The Pentagon put the campaign's cost at $25 billion in April and $29 billion in May. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July testimony put it at $37.5 billion, with a $67 billion supplemental request pending, according to Foreign Policy In Focus. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has called any extra war funding request "beyond the pale."

That commentary argues a Democratic House could use the debt limit as leverage over war spending because a vote withheld cannot be vetoed. The author warns this would repeat the damage of earlier standoffs. Standard & Poor's downgraded U.S. credit in August 2011, Fitch followed in 2023, and Moody's removed the last triple-A in May 2025. Jeffries himself called the Republican version of the tactic a "ransom note" in 2023, the commentary notes.

Energy permitting and the long-term bill

On Monday, Nov. 9, the Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, which would reform federal environmental review and permitting. The Republican chairmen and ranking Democrats of the Senate Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources committees introduced it. Advancing it requires 60 votes, and it is not certain enough Democrats will supply them, according to commentator Star Parker in the Epoch Times.

Parker, who joined Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and others in a coalition letter, argues Democrats who campaigned on affordability should vote yes. The coalition says the bill would "lower energy costs, speed up approval of critical infrastructure projects, curb superfluous litigation."

A separate Fortune commentary calls for passing the bipartisan Fiscal Commission Act (H.R. 3289) before Congress adjourns. Its authors estimate total federal liabilities and unfunded social insurance obligations reached at least $147 trillion as of Sept. 30, 2026, up about $11 trillion in a year. They put $40 trillion in debt at about 124% of GDP. They also cite CBO projections that 50.6% of individual income taxes will go to servicing the debt by 2036, up from 36.5% in fiscal 2025.

The next concrete test is the Senate's Nov. 9 procedural vote. After that, the Dec. 11 funding deadline will show whether the add-ons ride along or the session ends with a stopgap.