I received this link to a recent article in Accounting Today from a colleague and a reader of The WOTC Planet.  According to the article, Senator John Thune (Republican from South Dakota) has confirmed the Senate’s intention to act on expired tax incentives, which are typically reauthorized with a tax extenders bill.
Thune is currently Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee.  According to Accounting Today:

The Senate plans to act on a slate of expired tax credits before month’s end, according to John Thune, the Senate’s No. 3 ranking Republican who serves on the Finance Committee. Lobbyists have been told the package of “tax extenders”—renewing tens of billions of dollars in expired tax incentives—could be hitched to must-pass government funding legislation expected in coming weeks.

I found a related mention, published on November 16 in the Wall Street Journal.

. . . [S]enators are also talking about a separate tax-extenders bill that would follow the broader [tax-reform] bill.
It’s not clear what would be in such a package, but Finance Committee members have mentioned renewable-energy tax breaks and the New Markets Tax Credit, which encourages investment in struggling areas

A 2017 tax extenders bill would offer another avenue to restore expired tax benefits missed by current tax reform deliberations.
Proponents of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) have been urging Congress to expand WOTC Target Groups and to make the program permanent. A 2017 tax extenders bill would provide one more potential means to those ends.