Congress will return to Washington, D.C., next week entering into a dead sprint to wrap up work before the year’s end, to cap off a blistering, often dramatic year on the Hill.

Both chambers will have three working weeks before again fleeing from the growing chill in Washington to their respective districts and states. And lawmakers have some of the biggest challenges of the year left to finish.

Perhaps the biggest looming legislative fight will be how lawmakers approach the expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which dominated the recently-ended government shutdown.

Neither side has produced a fulsome plan on how to tackle the subsidies, though some solutions from Republicans, like funneling the subsidy funding into Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), have been floated.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged last week that producing a solution would be a steep hurdle, and reiterated his commitment to Senate Democrats that they would get a vote on whatever proposal they produce no later than the second week in December.

Thune noted that ‘the one thing that unites’ the GOP is the belief that the subsidies need to be reformed and that rising healthcare costs need to be dealt with.

‘I think the affordability issue is a big issue,’ Thune said. ‘I think it’s been exacerbated by the way that Obamacare has been structured through the years, including the way that enhanced subsidies were structured by going directly to insurance companies and incentivizing them to enroll people without their knowledge.’

And the White House also has its own plan, which was expected to be rolled out earlier this week, but sidelined over reportedly disgruntled Republicans who disliked the proposed language.

When asked about specifics of the plan, and it was scrapped, a White House official told Fox News Digital that ‘there was never a healthcare announcement listed on [Monday’s] daily guidance.’

But the rumblings of a plan from President Donald Trump and the administration have encouraged some Senate Democrats.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who originally proposed legislation to extend the subsidies, said that she was glad that the president was making an effort to ensure the credits don’t sunset by the end of the year.

‘I’ve had constructive conversations with many of my Republican colleagues who I believe want to get this done,’ Shaheen said in a statement. ‘They understand that the vast majority of people who benefit from these tax credits live in states the President won, and that the President’s own pollsters have underscored the enormous political urgency of Republicans acting.’

But the Obamacare issue is not the only issue Congress faces. Lawmakers are eyeing passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act by the end of the year, the Senate is considering another package of Trump’s nominees and another package of spending bills is expected on the horizon, too.

That package of four bills, which is expected to include the Defense, Labor, Transportation and Commerce funding bills, would be a massive step toward averting yet another deadline to fund the government by Jan. 30, 2026.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said earlier this month that there was also an ‘interest on the House side’ to move the bills.

‘The more appropriations bills that we’re able to pass, the better off we’re going to be, the better off the American people will be served,’ she said.

There are also some lingering issues that could pose surprises before the year’s end, including how Congress will handle Russia sanctions and the controversial provision in the package that reopened the government that would allow senators to sue for upwards of $500,000 if their records were requested without notification.

On the sanctions front, the Senate has overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation that Trump appears to support, but there’s a possible disconnect between Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on where the legislation should originate.

Thune believed it’d be better suited in the House given that it’s a revenue-geared bill, while Johnson warned that it would be time-consuming to pass the bill in the lower chamber because of how many different committees it would have to move through.

Some in the Senate are already looking ahead to next year, when lawmakers will be in full midterm election mode. Another crack at budget reconciliation, the process used to pass Trump’s marquee ‘big, beautiful bill,’ has been floated, but whether there is broad buy-in from congressional Republicans remains in the air.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said that it would be ‘legislative malpractice’ to not undertake the grueling process once more.

‘It’s just exquisitely dumb,’ Kennedy said. ‘Why would you not take advantage of an opportunity to pass something with 51 votes? That doesn’t mean that our Democratic colleagues can’t join with us, but if they don’t, they can’t filibuster. Did I mention it’s exquisitely dumb?’

Official peace talks between the U.S. and Ukraine on ending the Ukraine war moved to a productive phase Sunday – but only after President Zelenskyy sent a new-look team to Florida, according to a former Ukrainian government official.

With Rustem Umerov now leading Zelenskyy’s team and longtime adviser and chief of staff Andriy Yermak out, the source claimed the move signaled Kyiv was reassessing its ‘uncompromising’ stance.

The official, who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity, said the personnel choice represented a move away from the approach that has shaped Ukraine’s diplomatic strategy for years.

‘Yermak had been teaching Zelenskyy to be a ‘Father of the Nation’ and until now, the Ukrainian side has been pushing for an unachievable and uncompromising position,’ the former official said.

‘Umerov is not a very impressively strong individual in politics, but he wants to achieve results and is known to be aligned with compromise.’

Ukraine’s new delegation also included Andrii Hnatov, head of the armed forces; Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister; and Umerov, who is head of the country’s security council.

After the meeting, Umerov offered a brief assessment to reporters, saying: ‘We are grateful to American people, American leadership and a great team with, state secretary, Steve, with both Jared Kushner for their tremendous work with us,’ he said.

‘Our objective is a prosperous, strong Ukraine. We will [be] discussing [sic] the future of Ukraine. We discussed all the important matters that are important for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people. And the U.S was super supportive.’

‘We already had a successful meeting in Geneva, and today we can continue this success. So at the moment, this meeting was productive and successful in the later stages.’

The new team traveled to Florida for discussions aimed at refining President Trump’s proposed framework and his push to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Sunday’s negotiations also took place after a leak published by Bloomberg News, revealed a transcript of an Oct. 14 call where special envoy Steve Witkoff allegedly offered advice to Russian officials on how to sell a peace plan to Trump.

‘The Ukrainian side had in some way undermined peace negotiations and Donald Trump’s efforts, not mentioning that it prolongs the war,’ the former official said.

The same former official said the shift in Kyiv’s delegation followed the dramatic resignation of Yermak, after anti-corruption investigators raided his home on Friday.

‘Yermak was deeply distrusted by many actors, including Western actors including the U.S. administration and including Biden’s administration,’ the source added.

Despite his exit, the official warned that Yermak’s influence may still be shaping the Ukrainian team.

‘Mr. Yermak is still there and, in fact, all the delegation that came to Florida includes Mr. Yermak’s people, his loyal people, very close personally to him –  people who [have] been serving him faithfully for years.’

‘Yermak has not disappeared and might be on the telephone or online and ruling the agenda behind the scenes,’ they added.

They said Yermak’s long-standing governing style still influences Kyiv’s political posture:

‘In Ukraine, as in many post-Soviet countries, there is still the so-called ‘telephone rule’, when a powerful person can influence the outcome of any formal decision-making despite lacking formal powers and in contradiction with the law.’

‘Yermak has been doing this for the last six and a half years,’ the source added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff, and senior advisor Jared Kushner led the American side in Sunday’s session.

Rubio told reporters after the meeting: ‘We had another very productive session. Building off Geneva, building off the events of this week,’ he said.

‘As I told you earlier this morning, our goal here is to end the war,’ he continued. ‘But it’s more than just to end the war. We don’t just want to end the war. We also want to help Ukraine be safe forever. So never again will they face another invasion. And equally importantly, we want them to enter an age of true prosperity.’

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he had spoken to Rubio and Witkoff and that they were ‘doing well.’

‘Ukraine’s got some difficult little problems,’ Trump said. ‘They have some difficult problems. But I think Russia would like to see it end and I think Ukraine… I know Ukraine would like to see it end.’

He also said he thinks there is ‘a good chance we can make a deal.’

In a post shared on X, Zelenskyy highlighted Umerov’s work in Florida as the head of the Ukrainian delegation.

‘Today, following the work of the teams in the United States, head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov reported on the main parameters of the dialogue, its emphases, and some preliminary results,’ he said.

‘It is important that the talks have a constructive dynamic and that all issues were discussed openly and with a clear focus on ensuring Ukraine’s sovereignty and national interests. I am grateful to the United States, to President Trump’s team, and to the President personally for the time that is being invested so intensively in defining the steps to end the war. We will continue working. I look forward to receiving a full report from our team during a personal meeting.’

Sunday’s talks came just hours after another deadly Russian strike on Kyiv killed at least one person and wounded 19, including four children, Euronews reported.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the war has left huge areas of Ukraine devastated and roughly 20% of its territory under occupation.

President Donald Trump delivered a stern ultimatum to Nicolás Maduro to leave Venezuela immediately before announcing the country’s airspace should be closed, according to a report.

Per the Miami Herald, Washington’s warning was delivered in a phone call with Caracas and offered guaranteed evacuation for Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and their son, but only if the dictator agreed to resign on the spot. 

The conversation stalled, U.S. officials said, and within hours Washington escalated dramatically. 

The ensuing impasse, a source told the outlet, was over Maduro asking for ‘global amnesty for any crimes he and his group had committed, and that was rejected.’ 

‘Second, they asked to retain control of the armed forces — similar to what happened in Nicaragua in ’91 with Violeta Chamorro. In return, they would allow free elections.’ 

The final issue was timing, according to the outlet, as Washington demanded that Maduro resign immediately – but Caracas refused.

Trump went on to announce Saturday that Venezuelan airspace would be considered ‘closed in its entirety.’ 

The Herald also reported that the Maduro government tried to schedule another call to Washington but received no response.

According to a defense expert familiar with the country’s military and state-linked cartel ties, Maduro and key players in his regime could now face their most serious threat yet.

‘I think the operations will start imminently,’ former Venezuelan diplomat Vanessa Neumann told Fox News Digital.

‘The clearing of the airspace is an indication and a very clear public warning that missiles might be coming to take out command and control infrastructure or retaliatory infrastructure,’ Neumann said. ‘This will not be like breaking a jar into a thousand pieces, this is where you can lift the concentration of power, and it’s easier to manage.’

‘The targets have been identified through covert operations over the last several years by people on the ground,’ she continued. ‘So they’re well-mapped. This is a capture-or-kill scenario, but there’s a limit to how many people you can remove quickly.’

On Sunday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One not to ‘read anything into’ his declaring Venezuela’s airspace closed when asked if a strike was imminent. 

‘Maduro also doesn’t have that many options, and his military is very weak,’ she warned. ‘You can’t go after 30 people simultaneously, who are spread all around, but certainly high on the list would be Maduro himself.’

Venezuela’s armed forces, once among Latin America’s strongest, have been weakened by years of corruption, sanctions, defections, and lack of maintenance. Much of its equipment, Neuman says, has never even been serviced.

‘Their material is extremely old, decayed, and has not been serviced,’ Neuman explained. 

‘They’ve got junk from the Russians. The stuff they originally had from the Americans is decades old and has not been serviced.

‘So, they have neither the personnel, foreign support, nor the material,’ she said.

Ahead of shuttering the airspace, the U.S. also officially designated the cartel allegedly linked with Venezuela’s government, the Cartel de los Soles, as a foreign terrorist organization.

‘This cartel turned Venezuela’s main oil company into a narcotics trafficking money laundering operation, using the company’s access to international finance, until it was sanctioned,’ Neuman, who has worked with governments on countering transnational organized crime linked to the group, explained.

‘They were using Venezuelan military jets to bring in cocaine from Colombia, process it in Venezuela, and then move it into Central America and then into Europe.

‘Jet pilots were making a lot of money off that, and they’ve tortured people. They target people, anybody who tell on them, they’re disappeared,’ Neuman said. ‘They’re now one of the prime drug trafficking networks into the United States and Europe, and use their military positions, including their military-to-military relations, to grow and accelerate those movements.’

In fact, in September, the European Parliament also voted in favor of the EU designating Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization.

‘The Cartel de Los Soles is also a key collaborator and financier of Hezbollah and some of the drug money has been used to fund terrorist attacks that have killed American citizens, even in the Middle East,’ added Neuman, CEO of Asymmetrica Group, which specializes in defense cooperation.

The U.S. has also ramped up a military and intelligence campaign targeting drug-trafficking networks linked to Venezuela, including strikes on suspected narcotics boats.

‘The decision is President Trump’s because when he says, ‘Go’, we go. And nobody knows when he’ll say that,’ Neuman said. ‘He has mobilized so many assets down there now. But what President Trump is doing now is long overdue.’

‘The timing is right now,’ she added. ‘Because even Maduro’s biggest backers, Russia and Iran, are both on the back foot, and China will not go that far in backing Maduro as it has bigger and broader interests throughout the region.’

She also noted that ‘Maduro is also weakened because his partners are weakened and have their own issues to deal with,’ and that ‘we also now have a concentration of power and deep repression within the country that’s quite unified, which means it’s easy to flip.’

Neuman identified others in the regime who may be targeted, including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace and Alexander Granko Arteaga, head of Venezuela’s counter-intelligence agency, the DGCIM.

‘One of the reasons Granko is an important figure is that he’s one of the reasons why they haven’t capitulated and why there has not been a military uprising,’ Neuman explained.

‘It’s because of the brutality of the counter-intelligence that they do to their own military, and hundreds of soldiers are tortured. That said, the Venezuelan people have made it clear that they wanted Maduro out and fought democratically but lost,’ she added.

‘They voted in elections, protested peacefully, lobbied for sanctions, and lobbied for international support,’ Neuman said.

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, will travel to Moscow on Monday, a U.S. official tells Fox News.

The trip comes as peace talks between Ukraine and Russia show signs of progress, with the White House pushing a peace plan to end the nearly four-year-long war.

On Sunday, Witkoff — a central figure in negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior advisor Jared Kushner in Florida to meet with Ukrainian negotiators. 

Rubio described the meeting as ‘very productive.’ In a statement, Rubio said that the end goal is ‘not just the end of the war.’

‘Obviously, that’s essential and fundamental. We want to see the end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do as well,’ Rubio said. 

‘They want peace. But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.’

Last week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow could reject the White House’s peace deal framework if it does not uphold the ‘spirit and letter’ of what President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to at the Alaska summit in August.

He warned that if the terms of the ‘key understandings’ are ‘extinguished’ then the situation would become ‘fundamentally different.’

Despite Lavrov’s comments, Putin showed interest in Trump’s plans to end the war on Thursday, calling the drafted plans a starting point.

‘We need to sit down and discuss this seriously,’ Putin told reporters, according to The Associated Press.

Trump’s plan as ‘a set of issues put forward for discussion’ rather than a draft agreement.

‘Every word matters,’ Putin added.

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Tobianski, Kyle Schmidbauer and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Sunday defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over allegations he ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan drug boat, saying he believes Hegseth’s denial and would not have supported a follow-up attack if it happened.

The exchange came during a gaggle aboard Air Force One as reporters pressed Trump on claims that Hegseth authorized a second strike that allegedly killed two wounded men after an earlier attack on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel.

Trump repeatedly said Hegseth denied giving such an order. He added that he was aware of the allegation but stressed that Hegseth told him the claim was untrue and that he accepted that explanation without hesitation.

‘He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%,’ Trump said.

Reporters asked Trump whether he would have approved a second strike if Hegseth had ordered one, prompting him to again distance himself from the allegation while stressing that he trusted his secretary of war.

Trump said he planned to seek additional information about the reported incident but reiterated that Hegseth assured him nothing improper happened.

‘No, I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike,’ Trump said.

Still, he praised the wider campaign targeting drug-smuggling boats, saying the strikes had sharply reduced the flow of narcotics into the U.S. by sea in recent months.

Trump argued the vessels posed a deadly threat and framed the operations as necessary to protect Americans, calling the missions lethal but justified.

‘You can see the boats,’ he said. ‘You can see the drugs in the boats and each boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans.’

Trump went to Hegseth’s defense after reports from outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN claimed the U.S. military ordered a second strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 after the earlier attack left two survivors.

According to The Washington Post, the commander overseeing that operation told colleagues on a secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they could still contact other traffickers for help and ordered the second strike to comply with what he said was a directive from Hegseth that everyone must be killed.

‘As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,’ Hegseth wrote on X on Friday.

‘As we’ve said from the beginning and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’’ Hegseth continued. ‘The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.’

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump defended calling Venezuela’s airspace closed, saying the country is sending criminals into the U.S., but told reporters not to ‘read anything into it’ when asked whether the warning suggested an imminent strike.

While speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said Venezuela is ‘not a very friendly country’ and claimed it has sent criminals, gang members and drug traffickers into the U.S.

On Saturday, Trump told airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers to ‘consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.’

When asked Sunday if the warning meant an airstrike is imminent, Trump said: ‘Don’t read anything into it.’

Trump also confirmed a report from the New York Times that he spoke on the phone with President Nicolás Maduro, though he offered no details about the conversation.

‘I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,’ he said. ‘It was a phone call.’

The president’s comments come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela over Venezuela’s failure to stop drug traffickers from sending narcotics into the U.S.

Since September, the Trump administration has conducted over 20 strikes against alleged drug boats in Latin American waters and beefed up its military presence in the Caribbean as part of Trump’s effort to crack down on the flow of drugs into the U.S.

The strikes have brought the total number of suspected narco-terrorists eliminated to over 82, with three survivors.

But as the U.S. continues to bolster forces in the waters off Venezuela, Maduro has called for peace but also remained defiant against what he called ‘imperialist aggression.’

Maduro delivered an address in Caracas last week while brandishing a sword and warning supporters to prepare for confrontation, saying the U.S. will ‘very soon’ begin stopping suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land.

He appeared at a mass rally in the capital holding the sword of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence leader regarded as the liberator of much of South America. Maduro told supporters the country was facing a decisive moment.

The Associated Press reported that he said, ‘For anyone, whether civilian, politician, military, or police –  Let no one make excuses. Failure is not an option. The homeland demands it! Our greatest effort and sacrifice. And with (Simón) Bolívar, I come to say that if the homeland demands it, the homeland will have our lives, if necessary,’ he declared while raising Bolívar’s sword.

Maduro framed the situation as a struggle against what he described as external threats, urging Venezuelans to mobilize against any foreign aggression.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.