By Niels Lesniewski and JM Rieger

As the Senate returned from the Thanksgiving break, Majority Leader Harry Reid was already encouraging colleagues to work quickly to complete work for the year. While both the House and the Senate would like to complete activity for the lame-duck session by the end of next week, the Nevada Democrat who will cede the majority leader’s post when the Congress ends was already warning that work could approach Christmas. “We need to work on reauthorizing defense authorization legislation. We have a lot to do, and there isn’t much time to accomplish it. So, I encourage all senators to work hard to complete our work in a timely and efficient fashion. We may have to be here the week before Christmas, and hopefully … not into the Christmas holiday,” Reid said. “But, there are things we have to get done.”