Congress returned to Washington this week for a lame-duck session unlike any in recent memory: a Republican majority with weeks left to govern, a December funding cliff bearing down, and a Democratic takeover of both chambers waiting on the other side of New Year's Day.

Democrats secured sweeping gains in last week's midterms, flipping enough seats to claim majorities in the House and Senate for the 120th Congress. Until then, Republicans still hold the gavels — and they are using the time left to push through as many of President Trump's priorities as they can before losing the votes to do it.

The top item is personnel. Senate Republicans are racing to confirm a backlog of Trump administration officials and judicial nominees while they still control the chamber's floor schedule, according to Axios reporting on the session's crowded agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, freshly reelected to keep his post despite the party's losses, is expected to keep the chamber grinding through confirmation votes into the holidays.

A Funding Deadline Nobody Wants to Miss

Hanging over all of it is money. Lawmakers have just over a month to pass legislation keeping the government funded past a mid-December deadline, and with Democrats poised to gain leverage in January, neither side has much appetite for a fight that drags into the new year. One bipartisan push getting renewed attention is a permitting overhaul aimed at speeding up approval for energy and infrastructure projects — a rare area where some Democrats have signaled they could work with the outgoing majority.

REPUBLICANS ARE EAGER TO IMPLEMENT THE PRESIDENT'S AGENDA, BUT THEY'RE DOING IT WITH SLIM MARGINS AND A CLOCK THAT'S RUNNING OUT.

Democratic strategists, meanwhile, are weighing how hard to fight now versus later. Several have suggested the party may hold off on bigger legislative battles until January, when it will negotiate funding and policy directly with the Trump White House from a position of actual power — rather than spend its last weeks in the minority losing votes it can't win.

The personnel question is especially pointed on the judiciary. A Democratic-controlled Senate come January is expected to all but halt the pace of federal judicial confirmations that Republicans have pushed through over the past two years, giving this lame-duck stretch outsized importance for reshaping the courts.

For now, the Capitol is a study in mismatched clocks: a White House eager to bank wins, a Senate majority with weeks left to deliver them, and a Congress that returns in January looking nothing like the one adjourning this winter.