Rep. Harriet Hageman, who won one of the few Republican U.S. Senate seats in Tuesday’s blue-wave election, is urging her GOP colleagues to use the remaining days of the lame-duck Congress to pass multi-year budgets protecting agencies that Democrats want to defund and to codify President Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.

Hageman, soon to be sworn in as Wyoming’s next senator, told Just the News she wants Republicans to replicate the budget reconciliation law that funded Trump’s Homeland Security agenda through the end of his presidency. A second reconciliation package would need only 51 Senate votes, bypassing the filibuster, and Trump could then use his veto pen to block Democratic efforts to overturn his priorities through the 2028 election.

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From Just the News:

“We need to target those agencies that we know that the Democrats are going to target from the standpoint of trying to either destroy them, undermine them or fundamentally change where they go.”

“We need to make sure that the cutting of those programs stays permanent,” she explained. “We need to make sure that the DOJ work is permanent. … Those are exactly the kinds of things that we need to use reconciliation for. That’s what it is for: to make sure that we have implemented our budget priorities for the benefit of the American people.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” he told the same show. “Look, I’m going back to D.C. tomorrow. I’m happy to stay there around the clock until Jan. 3 to get the job done for the American people. Part of the reason we lost the majority is voters didn’t think we worked that hard,” he also said. “They saw the Senate not even trying to pass the Save America Act, and they said, ‘What’s the point in having them?’ Well, we’ve got two months left, and we should use every minute to the maximum advantage that we have.”

Hageman named border and immigration budget items, Justice Department and FBI priorities, and the USAID foreign aid cuts implemented by Elon Musk’s DOGE team as targets for the reconciliation package. Democrats have made clear they want to restore most of USAID’s budget, she said. She also called for five Congressional Review Act resolutions to reverse what she described as “horrific policies” encoded in California state regulations that affect the whole country, noting that the CRA path bypasses the filibuster entirely.

Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, another Republican who had a good election night, endorsed the idea on the same program. Fine said he outperformed his first congressional run by 5 percent and was willing to stay in Washington “around the clock until Jan. 3.” He argued that voter perceptions of Republican effort, including the Senate’s failure to pass the Save America Act, contributed to the loss of the majority. The source does not include a response from Senate Republican leadership, the House Speaker’s office, or any Democrat on either proposal.

Ephesians 5:15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” The lame-duck session is a window of stewardship, and stewardship is measured by what was built, not what was attempted. Pray that Republican leaders in both chambers would treat these remaining weeks as a trust rather than a formality, and that they would have the courage to use every lawful tool to protect the priorities voters sent them to advance. Pray for wisdom in choosing which agencies and programs to shield, for unity among Republicans who may be tempted to coast, and for the president to use his veto pen wisely once the next Congress begins.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from Just the News. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Harriet Hageman, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=161002843).