Nearly one week after last Tuesday's midterm elections, control for the House of Representatives and the Senate remains up for grabs. Nonetheless, Republicans appear to be on track to retake control of the House for the first time since 2019—if by a smaller margin than commentators expected before the election. Divided government—where one party controls the White House and the other party controls one or both chambers of Congress—usually generates a flurry of investigative activity, as congressional majorities wield Congress' investigative powers in an effort to score political victories against the White House incumbent.

However, a shift in power on Capitol Hill with the new Congress in 2024 could produce particularly vigorous investigative activity next year. Republicans have been in the minority for four years. And the looming 2024 presidential election will enhance GOP incentives to investigate the White House, hoping to weaken Democrats in the 2024 election. The window for such investigative activity will close at the end of 2023 as elected and party officials leave Washington, D.C., for the campaign trail in early 2024.