They can put on big boy and girl pants and finish Republican business, or they can disappear.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican who did win re-election, hopes his coworkers will choose the former and will use their majorities to good effect.
But that may be wishful thinking.
There have been media reports from a handful of outlets suggesting GOP members who lost elections, or were retiring anyway, may be less inclined to spend the holidays in Washington.
No specific group of lawmakers has publicly revealed such plans, but that line of thinking could apply to dozens of House members and almost 20 senators.
It’s possible that outgoing lawmakers could cherry-pick the votes they’ll attend.
“The American people elected them for 22 months, not 24 months. We need to be there,” he said on “Washington Watch” Monday.
If Republicans can muster the numbers for governance, there’s talk of what is being called “Reconciliation 3.0.”
Republicans used the reconciliation process — which requires that proposed legislation be budget related — to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed by President Donald Trump on July 3, 2025 and the Secure America Act in June. The reconciliation process allows the majority party to bypass the Senate filibuster.
The One Big Beautiful Bill included tax cuts, Medicaid and Healthcare reform, support for border initiatives and more.
The Secure America Act provide increased funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security.
The House Freedom Caucus, which includes Clyde, has sent a letter to GOP leadership expressing eight key points it says should be pursued immediately.
They include: a federal voter ID requirement, codification of Trump’s border policies, a congressional stock-trading ban extending to the executive and judicial branches, congressional term limits, less federal spending, permitting reform and confirmation of Trump judicial and other nominees.
“We need to pass these issues so we can put legislation on the president's desk to become law, to protect the border policies that have been so successful in the last 18-19 months, to protect the American people from tax increases, to protect our Homeland Security Department, our Department of War, from having their budgets cut so drastically that they fail to function as they should,” Clyde told show host Tony Perkins.
For either party, getting anything done centers around funding.
“We need to give the Trump administration the funding that they need to get through the next year, really, in some cases, through the entire Trump presidency,” Clyde said.
