WASHINGTON — Fresh from an election that emphatically punctuated voter dissatisfaction with a gridlocked Washington, lawmakers return Wednesday for a lame-duck session that will provide the first crucial test of whether Democrats and Republicans can cooperate or if the next Congress will be another study in dysfunction.
Lawmakers acknowledge that clearing a backlog of stalled legislation and executive branch nominees without the partisan animus that has permeated the 113th Congress could signal a chance at progress when Republicans take over the Senate in January and solidify the party’s grip on Capitol Hill. But a postelection session that breaks down in finger-pointing and recriminations over immigration policy and Internet regulation will foreshadow the likelihood of limited compromise ahead.
“The tone in the next two months is going to set the tone for the next two years,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, a member of the Republican leadership.
If they cannot make deals now, they might never be able to, because all sides have real incentives to act.
Democrats want to use the remaining days of their majority to pass a governmentwide spending bill, advance nominations, consider a Pentagon policy bill and perhaps enact surveillance law changes. Republicans want to clear away much of the legislative underbrush and renew some tax breaks so they can have a clean start in January. The White House would also like to see government funding assured through next fall and to fill some of its executive and judicial branch vacancies.
“The key to it is finding something that both sides can agree on and understanding that the end result has to make both sides look reasonably good or at least not too bad,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee.
Republicans said they were pleased that Democrats seemed increasingly inclined not to use the lame-duck session to press for the confirmation of the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta E. Lynch, as the new attorney general, a move that Republicans were seeing as just one last bit of nomination hardball on the part of their adversaries.
Democrats now indicate that given the press of other priorities, there may not be time to bring the nomination to a floor vote. They say that given her strong credentials, Ms. Lynch should be able to win confirmation from a Republican Senate. And if Republicans block her, Democrats see some political advantage because Republicans would be killing the nomination of the first African-American woman to head the Justice Department — a move that could provoke a backlash.
For their part, Democrats and their allies would like to see Republicans allow some leeway on nominations, particularly career Foreign Service officers waiting for ambassadorial confirmations, rather than force Democrats to consume hours of floor time pushing them through.
“I think one of the indicators will be nominations and whether we can move a significant amount,” said Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats. “If we can move some of these things in an expeditious way, I think that will indicate there is an opportunity for some working relationship.”
Democrats are also watching to see if Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and incoming majority leader, and Speaker John A. Boehner stick behind spending legislation that funds the government through Sept. 30 or if they bow to increasing demands from some lawmakers and conservative activists to fund the government on a short-term basis. The conservatives argue that Republicans should retain government funding as leverage against President Obama to deter him from his plan to reduce deportations of undocumented immigrants through an executive order.
Leaders of both parties and members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have made clear their preference for a spending package that extends through the fiscal year. Democrats will read any retreat as a sign that Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell remain unwilling to challenge Tea Party factions in the rank-and-file to strike compromises with Democrats.
The threat of action by Mr. Obama on immigration is hanging over the lame-duck session — the 20th such postelection meeting since 1940. Even Republicans who say they want to find a way to work with Democrats and the White House to reach legislative deals say the president’s issuance of an executive order would endanger any chance of bipartisanship.
“You don’t make a deal with someone by continuously poking your finger in their eye,” Mr. Alexander said.
While some Democrats want the White House to wait until a spending bill is approved, party leaders in the House and the Senate support the president’s forging ahead with an executive order because they do not believe congressional Republicans are serious about moving forward and cannot overcome internal opposition.
Some Democrats assert that Republicans are looking for a reason not to work with the White House and will use an immigration order by Mr. Obama as an excuse for failing to deliver much in the new Congress.
Lame-duck sessions are always conducted in an awkward environment that throws House and Senate members who have just suffered painful political losses together with those who won. Newly elected members roam the halls of the Capitol for orientation and meetings with their new colleagues and can pass by those they just defeated.
Lawmakers on the way out have worried staff members who suddenly need to find jobs while some of their soon-to-be former colleagues are sizing up office suites and parking spaces about to be vacated. Historically, Congress has tried to avoid lame-duck meetings.
But given the stalemates that have occurred in recent Congressional sessions, lame-duck sessions have become a regular feature of governing since the two parties have been able to reach even temporary agreement on divisive issues such as taxes, spending and the debt limit only after the pressure of the election has passed.
Now this latest rendition of the lame-duck session will gauge not only if lawmakers can arrive at some temporary truce, but whether there is any hope for them to do so again in the two years to come.