President Joe Biden and lawmakers return to Washington this week facing a lengthy lame-duck to-do list with only three weeks scheduled to resolve it — a recipe for a very un-merry holiday season should negotiations falter in the final throes of the 117th Congress.

— First up: government funding, which expires Dec. 16. The verdict is still out on whether a bipartisan full-year appropriations deal is within reach — or whether Congress will just kick the can down the road and pass another continuing resolution into next year.

All eyes this week will be on Senate Republicans — and especially GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who will have to decide whether to help put up the 10 needed GOP votes to clear a 2023 omnibus.

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Raghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Nov. 28, 2022: We run down the year-end sprint