This week on the Hill: Congress returns to leadership fights, shutdown deadline after GOP losses

Congress returns to Capitol Hill after an astonishing midterm election that dealt Republicans major losses and left Democrats riding high. Now, Republicans face their next major test: a fight over who will lead the party in the House as it prepares its descent into the minority.

House Republicans are scheduled to hold their leadership elections Nov. 10. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told lawmakers on a staff call last week that he will not run for minority leader, setting the stage for a potentially bruising contest between House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) are both seeking to retain their leadership positions in the minority. But neither is guaranteed a smooth path, with both facing challengers from within the conference.

Johnson has more than a leadership transition to contend with during the final weeks of the congressional session.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) will reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week, largely over his handling of the war in Iran. Several Republicans, including Vice President Vance, have pointed to the conflict as a reason for the party’s election losses, though they have stopped short of calling for Hegseth’s ouster.

Congress also faces a looming Dec. 11 government funding deadline. Lawmakers must either pass all 12 annual appropriations bills or pass another stopgap measure to avert a shutdown, adding another major legislative hurdle to an already compressed lame-duck session.

The Senate, meanwhile, is expected to hold a procedural vote Monday on advancing a bipartisan permitting reform package that would speed up the build-out of the nation’s infrastructure, especially energy projects.

GOP leadership elections heat up: Jordan and Scalise are vying for minority leader, a position that will play a key role in countering the Democratic agenda next year.

Massie to reintroduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth: The Defense Secretary has faced scrutiny from the Kentucky Republican and Democrats over his handling of the Iran war and other ventures.

Lawmakers race to avert shutdown: Republicans and Democrats have only a few weeks to pass a stopgap measure or complete work on all 12 appropriations bills before Dec. 11.

Senate to take up bipartisan permitting reform bill: The legislation, which would make it harder to block energy projects, is expected to advance.

Republicans have been divided over how to move forward as a conference, with some arguing that there needs to be a complete revamp of the leadership team.

“There has to be accountability for results, and you know the team that led us to the disaster probably isn’t the team that should lead us from the disaster,” one GOP lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Hill.

Jordan, co-founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has emerged as a favorite among some House Republicans.

“I think we’re going into a wartime situation where we are going to be the rebel alliance, and we’re going to need someone who knows how to fight, and Jim Jordan knows how to do that,” the lawmaker said.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) also threw his support behind Jordan, arguing on Newsmax Thursday that Jordan “is the type of communicator we need, communicating common-sense Republican conservative principles again, against the backdrop of what is going to be a DSA-dominated Senate and House Democrat majority.”

But other Republicans argue that Scalise is better positioned to take the top spot, given his current leadership role. Scalise initially won the Republican nomination to be Speaker in 2023, beating Jordan in a secret-ballot vote. But he withdrew from the race when it became clear he would not win enough support from his conference to get the votes needed on the House floor.

“Steve is the right guy for the job. Plain and simple. He’s a tried and tested leader, who has the experience to lead House Republicans for the next two years, and the chops to reclaim the majority in 2028,” a second GOP lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger (R-Texas) is challenging Emmer for the minority whip position, while Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) are going head-to-head against McClain for the GOP conference chair role.

Massie to reintroduce articles of impeachment on Hegseth

Massie said on X last week that he plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth unless the defense secretary resigns. Most Democrats are expected to support the measure, but House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has stopped short of endorsing it.

Massie had previously launched an effort to impeach Hegseth back in September, but House GOP leaders canceled votes and sent lawmakers home early, avoiding a vote on Massie’s resolution. But only temporarily.

The Kentucky Republican argued then that Hegseth violated “his oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and violated “his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, especially with regard to the commission of war.” He added that Hegseth has “abused the powers of the Department of Defense.”

President Trump told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl last week that he has “every intention” of keeping Hegseth in the Cabinet, following reports that he was weighing whether the Defense chief should stay in the post after the midterm elections.

Hegseth also fired back at Massie last week, saying in a video clip posted to X that “a disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly.”

“Just like they tried against President Trump twice. You see, their policies don’t work, so their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponents. It’s all about the politics of personal destruction,” Hegseth said. “Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”

He’s probably right on that score. Even if the House does impeach Hegseth, the Senate is not likely to remove him from power.

Lawmakers work to avert government shutdown in December

Lawmakers have just two weeks to make progress on government funding before leaving again for Thanksgiving recess — an effort that will be challenged by a crowded legislative agenda that includes the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a farm bill and other priorities.

The House has passed three of the 12 appropriations bills, while Senate appropriators have remained deadlocked over top-line spending levels. The bills the House has passed so far — funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the State Department, and agriculture and rural development — represent some of the lowest-hanging fruit.

Johnson is sure to face much tougher resistance — both from Democrats and within his party — when the topic shifts to funding other agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Defense and Health and Human Services.

Democratic lawmakers told The Hill before the midterms that they are keen on getting the rest of the appropriations bills done. But with a short calendar and a contentious subject, the odds are stacked against them. Most observers think a short-term spending patch, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, is the most likely scenario.

House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told The Hill in a statement she doesn’t think anyone wants a shutdown, and one is not likely.

“Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed a desire to finish full-year funding bills before the end of this calendar year, and I am ready to do just that,” DeLauro said. “The American people want us to address the cost of living crisis and rein in this corrupt administration. With Democrats widely expected to be in the majority, we want to hit the ground running in the new year — not be forced to finish the work this Congress failed to complete.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement before the midterms that “whether or not there is a government shutdown is entirely up to Senate Democrats, who inflicted the longest government shutdown in U.S. history on the American people last year.”

“My priority remains passing the most conservative and fiscally responsible appropriations bills possible, and I look forward to completing that work when we return to Washington in the coming weeks,” he added.

Senate to hold procedural vote on bipartisan permitting reform bill

The upper chamber is expected to hold a procedural vote Monday on a permitting reform bill, dubbed the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act.

The legislation would make changes to the nation’s environmental laws that could make it easier to build projects and make it harder to block them, with either lawsuits or other legal mechanisms.

It also has provisions that are expected to make it easier to build and approve power lines, in particular, which is key to getting more power onto the grid. Democrats have pushed for such reforms, saying they believe they will particularly bolster renewable energy.

Trump has gone after renewable energy projects, and the bill contains measures that would protect those that are already approved. This bill could prevent Trump or other Republicans from trying to cancel renewable projects.

The bill is expected to advance, but it could receive some pushback from progressive Senate Democrats who have called for the administration to restore climate funding it terminated for blue states.

“While such action may not fully address the wide range of concerns individual Senators have about various portions of this complex legislation, it would represent an important first step and carry far more weight with us and, more importantly, our constituents whose awards were illegally terminated, than mere informal assurances that the Trump administration will stop interfering with clean energy projects,” the liberal senators wrote in a letter to Democratic and Republican negotiators of the bill.

Rachel Frazin contributed to this report.