House Freedom Caucus members delivered a blunt message to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday: don't book any flights home. The conservative bloc formally released an eight-part lame-duck agenda and demanded GOP leadership keep Congress in session until every item is passed — before Democrats take control of both chambers on January 3, 2027.
"Moreover, we request that we not leave town until we accomplish these objectives," the caucus letter reads, according to The Federalist. "Every one of us — including those leaving Congress on January 3rd — should be committed to finishing the job."
The clock is not on their side. According to The Gateway Pundit, the House has just 20 scheduled legislative days remaining and the Senate 22 before the new Congress is sworn in.
What's on the list
The agenda, as reported by the WLT Report and The Gateway Pundit, includes mandatory voter ID in federal elections, codification of President Trump's border security policies, a ban on sanctuary cities, congressional term limits, a ban on government officials trading stocks, and a robust energy permitting bill to expand domestic production.
On spending, the caucus wants Congress to freeze federal spending at current levels for a third consecutive year through a continuing resolution or appropriations bills — without policy riders the caucus says divide Republicans or constrain the administration's ability to root out waste. It rejects a year-end omnibus "filled with poison pills" and calls for at least $1 trillion in cuts, enough — members argue — to cover the package and make real progress on the deficit.
The letter also pushes an expansion of health savings accounts and preservation of access to lower-cost short-term health plans. On the Farm Bill and surface transportation reauthorization, the caucus says expiring programs should only be renewed if they are fiscally responsible, reduce prices for food and consumer goods, and protect Americans' privacy by ending surveillance technology mandates or funding.
And it urges the Senate to confirm as many of President Trump's judicial and executive nominees as possible before Democrats take the gavels. The WLT Report noted Democrats confirmed 22 of Joe Biden's judicial nominees during the 2024 lame-duck session — a precedent Republicans now face on the other side of the clock.
The letter's stated purpose is to deny the incoming majority every legislative leverage point possible. In the two months remaining in the 119th Congress, the caucus wrote, there is "an enormous amount of unfinished business to preserve and protect the Republic from an incoming majority party hell-bent on radically changing it."
Why it matters
Republicans return to Washington with weeks left before their control of both chambers ends, Axios reported, and Democrats have little incentive to help the outgoing majority lock in conservative priorities. Departing lawmakers can complicate the sprint by skipping votes or breaking with leadership.
The annual defense bill is already tangled in disputes over the Iran war and military aid to Israel, while the December funding deadline raises the threat of another shutdown. Senate Republicans are racing to confirm Trump's remaining nominees. Every one of those fights competes for the same shrinking number of floor days, and a single delay can consume time the majority cannot recover.
House Freedom Caucus members have now put their demand in writing: pass voter ID, codify the border agenda, ban sanctuary cities, cut $1 trillion, and confirm the nominees — or stay in session until it's done.
What Johnson and Thune do with the ultimatum will be known in the next 20 legislative days. There is no public indication yet of how leadership intends to sequence the package, and the defense bill and funding deadline remain unresolved.
Our Take
This letter is an indictment — not of Democrats, but of Republicans who spent two years campaigning on promises they have not yet put on the president's desk. Voters handed the GOP unified control of government in 2024. Voter ID, border security, sanctuary city bans, energy permitting, spending cuts — these are not fringe ideas. They are the platform Republicans ran on, and the Freedom Caucus is now forcing leadership to answer a simple question: what exactly are you waiting for?
The lame duck is the last window. After January 3, Democrats control the gavels, the subpoenas and the floor calendar. Every day Johnson and Thune spend negotiating with themselves is a day the incoming majority spends preparing to dismantle the agenda piece by piece.
The caucus is right to demand that members — including those heading for the exits — stay in Washington until the job is done. If Republicans cannot pass their own agenda while they control both chambers and the White House, why should voters ever believe them again? Patriots should be watching the floor schedule closely: 20 days in the House, 22 in the Senate. Either leadership finishes the job, or it goes home having done nothing but hand the new majority a clean slate.
