By David Morgan and Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Democratic-led U.S. Senate returned on Monday for a showdown with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives over government spending, disaster relief and defense policy before President-elect Donald Trump ushers in a new era of single-party rule next month.
The main challenge for lawmakers over the next three weeks is to avert a pre-Christmas partial government shutdown by striking a bipartisan deal to fund federal agencies beyond Dec. 20, when a current stopgap spending measure is due to expire.
The debate will include a nearly $100 billion emergency disaster relief request from President Joe Biden for areas of the U.S. Southeast hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton, and other communities struck by natural disasters.
Congress also faces a Jan. 1 deadline for raising the federal government's debt ceiling, though lawmakers and aides say that extraordinary measures employed by the Treasury Department are likely to postpone the expected "X" date for default well into 2025.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated on Monday that lawmakers are negotiating a short-term stopgap funding bill known as a continuing resolution, or CR, rather than a package of annual spending bills that would fund the government through fiscal year 2025, which ends on Sept. 30.
"Both sides are making progress negotiating on a bill that can pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support. We need to keep divisive and unnecessary provisions out of any government funding extension," Schumer, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
Schumer did not disclose details about a potential CR, which House Speaker Mike Johnson has said would run into early next year.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell chided Schumer for not moving forward with funding and other major legislation earlier in the year, saying, "December drama is not the way to demonstrate we're serious about our most basic governing responsibilities."
Trump's allies are pushing for a three-month stopgap that supporters say would allow their party's incoming political trifecta to dismantle current Democratic spending initiatives and policy priorities early in the new administration.
Legislative action on government funding is not expected to begin in the House until the last of the session's three weeks, timing that could raise risks for Johnson's slim 220-213 Republican majority if they opt for a partisan measure first.
House Republicans failed to pass their own partisan stop-gap measure in September and had to rely on mainly Democratic votes to narrowly avert a shutdown weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
FIRST 100 DAYS
This time, Republicans aim to display greater unity ahead of gaining full control over fiscal 2025 funding early next year.
But the stopgap approach will also drain time and energy away from Trump's ambitious first-100-days agenda of tax cuts, energy deregulation and border security.
House Republicans will have a similarly narrow majority next year and could see their margin of error shrink to a single vote for several months, with the departure of Matt Gaetz and two other Republicans who are set to join the Trump administration.
The 100-day agenda of Trump's first presidency ran aground in 2017 over a similar funding question, forcing him to withdraw his controversial plan to finance a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to avoid a government shutdown that April.
But Republicans believe they can enact Trump's agenda this time.
"There's no daylight between their agenda and what they envision and what we envision for the House," said Johnson, who has been in close contact with Trump.
Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Top lawmakers have yet to say how they intend to handle a Biden request for emergency disaster relief.
The head of the Small Business Administration recently testified to Congress that the agency's disaster loan program for homeowners, renters, and businesses ran out of money in October, leaving more than 60,000 loan applicants waiting for assistance.
Aides said a disaster relief package would likely be attached to a CR.
But the first objective for Congress this month is likely to be passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, annual legislation that sets policy for the Defense Department, according to congressional aides. Floor votes could come as early as next week, according to aides.