Highlights

Highlights

TAXES

The House has passed a 10-year, $1.4 trillion tax cut that blends a sharp reduction in top corporate and business tax rates with more modest relief for individuals. The Senate anticipates voting on its version this week. The Senate plan has larger rate cuts for individuals and a more generous per-child tax credit, but contains greater budgetary gamesmanship. Republicans can pass the measure without Democratic votes.

SPENDING

A temporary spending measure expires Dec. 8. Congress needs to pass an extension to avert a partial government shutdown. There also are 12 unfinished appropriations bills that must be completed. Accomplishing that would require an adjustment of spending caps that are the remnant of a failed 2011 budget deal. Democratic votes are required to pass the measures but bipartisan talks are behind schedule. Trump’s recent $44 billion request for hurricane aid, his third, is drawing criticism from Texans and others who say it ignores desperate needs in hurricane-hit states and Puerto Rico.

IMMIGRATION

A major battle over paying for Trump’s long-promised border wall with Mexico should finally come to a head. Also, Democrats and moderate Republicans are pressing for a legislative fix to protect the legal status of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Republicans do not want that issue caught up in the funding bill, but Democrats have other ideas.