Members of Congress returned to Capitol Hill Monday to launch the lame-duck session that is the last chance Republicans in the 119th Congress have to enact new legislation, and Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wants colleagues to stay in town as long as necessary, including through the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holidays, if necessary.

“Let’s get everything done. Just stay every day, all through Christmas, all through Thanksgiving, all through New Year’s. Every day,” Scott told Fox News’s Kayleigh McEnaney on Saturday. Asked if he will seek the Senate minority leader position, Scott said no, what should be done first is assess why November 3 was such a disaster for the GOP, “then sit down and figure out what we’re going to do differently, then we can decide who is going to be the leader” in the 120th Congress that convenes January 3, 2027 with Democrats in full control.

Over on the House side, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is of the same mind, saying in a post-election X message, “There is no reason GOP Congress should not meet every day from now till January 3rd. ... Turn things we should have finished into things we have done. We owe it to Americans.”

Judging by recent congressional history, however, it’s all but certain that outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and outgoing Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) will not keep lawmakers working in the nation’s capital through any of the upcoming holidays. Both have said they expect to be in session for about seven weeks, covering 49 calendar days.

As it happens, data compiled from multiple congressional records show a steady shortening of calendar days, in which past lame-duck Congresses have met. From 1900 through 2024, the average length of lame-duck sessions was 58 calendar days, but after the 20th Amendment to the Constitution came into effect in 1933, moving the official opening day of a new Congress from March 4 to January 3, the average plummeted to 35 calendar days.

The shortening of lame-duck sessions is even more dramatically illustrated, however, with an important qualifier — when only those calendar days are counted on which one or both of the chambers actually convened in a working session. As the accompanying chart shows, during the 1940 to 2024 period, the average number of lame-duck days in session was 17.2 for the House and 20.1 for the Senate. Shortening the period to 2008 to 2024 shows increases to 22.2 and 27, respectively. And for the most recent lame duck in 2024, the respective figures are 28 and 29 days in session.

The important qualifier concerns Senate pro forma sessions in which the upper chamber technically is in session but does not actually meet in quorum to conduct official legislative business. In 2024, for example, eight of the Senate’s 29 working days were pro forma, which means the Senate is officially convened, but there is no legislative business on the calendar. The purpose of such gatherings is to prevent the president from making recess appointments in the Executive Branch when Congress is out of session. Such appointments do not require Senate confirmation hearings.

Interestingly, the declining length of lame-duck workdays through the decades has been paralleled by an increase in the number of years individual members of the House serve before leaving Congress, either through retirement or losing a re-election campaign. Again, based on congressional source data compiled by AI, the average tenure for a House member from 1900 through 1960 was 6.7 years. After 1960, that figure hit 12.5 from 1960 to 2024.

The major items of business needing priority attention on the congressional calendar include enacting new funding for the government to avoid a December 11, 2026, deadline that, if not met, will result in another government shutdown. Competing House and Senate versions could require detailed and often lengthy negotiations between the two chambers. Negotiations between party leaders in both chambers prior to the election showed little progress as Democrats demanded domestic program spending hikes to match defense increases and Republicans declined.

There are critically important Department of War funding and policy decisions still undecided that will very likely consume precious time during the lame duck. These include replenishing weapons and other materials consumed by the military operation begun over Iran in February continuing to the present.

Other priority issues that could get lame duck attention include renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that enables government spying on individuals without prior congressional approval, a federal energy permitting reform proposal that has bipartisan support in Congress, and a reconciliation bill that, if it passes Senate procedural hurdles and is approved by both chambers, could include a provision raising the national debt limit and other controversial budgetary measures.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has heard the Trump White House wants such a reconciliation proposal, but he’s not seen or heard about any specific provisions sought by the president.