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Article snippet: Lawmakers are bracing for a chaotic January as they prepare to plunge into several fights in the first weeks of 2018. The nightmare legislative storm comes after Congress headed home for the year without resolving spending battles or getting an agreement on contentious issues such as immigration and foreign surveillance. It all means Congress must reach another deal to prevent a government shutdown by Jan. 19. Lawmakers also likely have to solve the issue of whether to protect young immigrants losing the protection of an Obama-era program shielding them from deportation beginning in March. “Jan. 19 is not going to be a fun day,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman MORE (R-N.C.). Sen. MORE (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, compared the upcoming schedule to “Groundhog Day.” “We get up and do the same thing over and over and over again. It's maddening,” he said. Here are the fights to watch when Congress returns. Budget deal, shutdown deadline Lawmakers are under pressure to get a deal to increase the budget caps and prevent automatic across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration. Leadership, as well as the White House, have been negotiating behind closed doors for weeks trying to lock down a two-year budget agreement that would cover the rest of the 2018 fiscal year, as well as fiscal 2019. But, thus far, a deal has remained elusive, with both sides battling over how much to increase both defense and nondefense spending. A senior administration offic... Link to the full article to read more