Congress Returns to Session—Here Are the Thorny Issues on Its Plate

The near-evenly divided House and Senate resume their two-year experiment back in Washington at the halfway point on Jan. 8. Democrats hold a two-seat majority in the Senate, while Republicans have just a six-seat advantage in the House—a combination that has thwarted progress on nearly every piece of significant legislation in the 118th Congress. During its first session, this Congress proved incapable of passing the 12 statutorily required annual spending bills, agreeing on long-term funding for the nation’s air traffic system, or deciding the fate of a controversial 9/11-era surveillance law. Now, with as many as 10,000 people illegally entering the country each day, wars raging in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and a potential government shutdown just days away, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) must work quickly to resolve thorny issues that have defied solution for months, in some cases decades....