Christmas in the Capitol? Congress' to-do list grows

At the top are maintaining the flow of highway funding, easing automatic budget cuts to the Pentagon and domestic agencies, renewing tax breaks and raising the debt limit.

[...] Washington has a case of chronic dysfunction, meaning there's little sense of urgency and the real potential for policymakers to end up doing the bare minimum — keeping the government on autopilot and avoiding an economy-rattling debt default.

The administration says Obama would veto such legislation, setting up a potential partial closing of the government similar to the 16-day shutdown in 2013 that was fueled by conservative activists and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, over Obama's health care law.

More pragmatic lawmakers want a sequel to a deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that traded longer-term budget savings and user fees for two years of relief from the automatic agency cuts.

Republicans, however, are in no hurry for negotiations and say it's up to the White House to offer concrete spending cuts known as offsets to finance relief for agency budgets.

—renewing tax cuts for businesses and individuals, including the research and development tax credit and the deduction for sales taxes in states without an income tax.