Morning Report — Congress tries to keep the lights on ...Middle East

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Congress is poised to avert a government shutdown — with hours to spare, necessary assistance from Democrats and some uproar from conservatives.

As lawmakers stare down a Friday deadline to fund the government, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday worked to reassure his colleagues there’s compromise in sight. House GOP leaders released the text of the 1,500-page stopgap Tuesday evening, a classic December catch-all package that has become prevalent in recent years. 

The stopgap bill is a massive undertaking that would fund the government through March 14. That deadline would buy more time for the next Congress and incoming president — the first Republican trifecta since 2017 — to hash out how the government should be funded for much of next year.

The package features a host of add-ons, including a one-year farm bill extension, roughly $100 billion in disaster relief, about $30 billion in disaster and economic assistance for farmers and other authorizations. Johnson on Tuesday tried to reject a typical end-of-year assessment.

“It’s not a Christmas tree,” he said, calling the measure a “small” funding patch “that we’ve had to add things to that were out of our control. These were not man-made disasters. These are things that the federal government has an appropriate role to do. So I wish it weren’t necessary. I wish we hadn’t had record hurricanes in the fall.”

House Democratic leaders, who predict dozens of GOP members will vote against the stopgap, warned Johnson.

“One of the things that we know very clearly is that House Democrats will be needed to pass government funding,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). “But this is a lesson for Speaker Johnson. Work with us, let’s find solutions, let’s tune out the most extreme voices in your conference, and let’s find that consensus that will be necessary to fund government.”

Republicans of all stripes — including hardline conservatives, committee chairs and moderates — spent weeks hammering away at Johnson objecting to the measure’s contents, the process he followed to craft it and how he plans to bring it to the floor for a vote.

Throughout the funding process, Johnson has struggled to make his razor-thin and fractious majority happy. House Republicans are fuming at the sprawling nature of the stopgap bill, saying it is more like an omnibus package — which they abhor — than a simple temporary funding measure.

“It’s a total dumpster fire. I think it’s garbage,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. “This is what Washington, D.C., has done. This is why I ran for Congress, to try to stop this. And sadly, this is happening again.”

“We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich,” echoed Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another Freedom Caucus member. “Why? Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner. It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.”

The negotiations offer a grim preview of what Johnson is up against next year. If he wins the gavel in January, his GOP majority in the 119th Congress will be thinner than it is now — and votes will come down to the wire as attendance will prove crucial.

While Republicans have expressed hope that the second Trump era can help them unify, they are also acknowledging their reality: Their fractious conference has enough independent actors that the current spending fight is just a preview of their new normal next year.

What’s next? Johnson said earlier Tuesday that the goal is to go “through regular process” for consideration of the text in the lower chamber. If he goes that route, the earliest lawmakers could vote on the text would be Friday under the House’s 72-hour rule — which would mean the Senate needs to act quickly before the Friday midnight funding deadline.

Trump’s Tuesday message to Senate: Meanwhile, President-elect Trump offered a new warning to Senate Republicans serving in this Congress. “To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I won the biggest mandate in 129 years. I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in.” 

▪ The New York Times: The era of U.S. military support for Ukraine in Congress is coming to an end. The Biden administration is unlikely to spend all of the remaining $5.6 billion that Congress allocated to send weapons and other military help to Ukraine, a senior Defense Department official said Tuesday.

▪ Bloomberg News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday pressed Trump on “massive” conflicts of interest tied to Elon Musk. 

▪ The Hill: Republicans released a report Tuesday reviewing the “failures and politicization” of the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee, capping their investigation by recommending a criminal investigation aimed at former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

▪ The Associated Press: Former longtime Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), 82, who served his district for nearly three decades and championed a balanced budget, died Saturday from complications of Parkinson’s disease.  

SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL'S BOB CUSACK:

There will be plenty of big stories in 2025, but there is a potential news earthquake that could reshape history at some point in Trump’s second term. 

Trump has promised to release secret files on the assassination of President Kennedy, which he also pledged during his first term. But back then, the CIA and FBI convinced Trump not to make the most sensitive documents public.

There have been countless investigations, books, movies and documentaries that raise legitimate questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Most Americans, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., think Oswald had help. 

Many scholars have pointed to evidence that suggests both the CIA and the mafia were involved in the assassination. If the files show that was indeed true, it would not shock the country since it's long been suspected. So that has triggered speculation there is a lot more in those classified documents. 

Some experts have said the public shouldn’t anticipate smoking guns that upend history. But then why did Trump say in 2017 he had “no choice” other than keeping the information under wraps, citing “potentially irreversible harm” to national security?

It’s been more than 61 years since Kennedy was killed, and the government hasn’t been transparent about what it knows. It’s time to tell people the entire truth. 

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ President Biden, like other lame-duck presidents, is fading from the political scene, all but leaving the stage before the final curtain. He’s checking a few last boxes on his presidential bucket list and the largest left is an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.

▪ Trump does not have a winning career record after suing news outlets, but press freedom advocates warn that his aggressive use of the courts creates a significant chilling effect, pressuring media companies to pull punches to avoid legal scrutiny as he takes the reins of federal governance.

▪ Americans legally wagered more than $30 billion on sports in the last quarter. Some lawmakers on Tuesday described the huge surge in sports gambling as a public health issue. Federal regulation could be next, according to Senate hearing witnesses.

LEADING THE DAY 

© The Associated Press | Charlie Neibergall

ON THE BENCH: Some federal judges who were appointed by Democrats are delaying their retirement plans following Trump’s victory last month. That means judicial vacancies dwindle heading into the Republican-dominated White House and Congress next year. Are such decisions within bounds? Yes, but it’s yet another sign that justice is not blind to political imperatives.

“As the Senate becomes more partisan, more polarized, more politicized, it seems like the assumption of senior status and retirement — when people leave the bench or go to senior status — has become similarly politicized, partisan,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies federal judicial selection. “And I think that's unfortunate.”

LIGHTEN UP: A Republican brouhaha is front and center after Trump said the entire nation should eliminate daylight Saving time and make standard time permanent, resetting battle lines among GOP lawmakers. Trump last week waded into the precarious debate, surprising lawmakers who think he’s thrown support behind both pro and con camps on Capitol Hill. 

“I’m confused,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), a major proponent of making daylight saving time permanent, told The Hill. “I think he just doesn’t want the clocks to go back and forth.”

▪ The Associated Press: The winter solstice, otherwise known as the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, arrives Saturday.

▪ The Hill: A disruptive dockworkers strike could begin days before Trump takes office ...

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