Using Up the Post-Shutdown Breathing Room: Starting Line

Money Talk

Today begins month No. 3 of the current fiscal year, and as Ken Tran reported for BGOV Budget, the best anyone is hoping for is the passage before Christmas of at least a few appropriations.

The House and Senate don’t even agree on what all of the spending bills should add up to, though House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said it’s possible to negotiate smaller bills without an agreement on the topline figure.

• “We’re coming off a 43-day shutdown, feelings are pretty raw around here right now,” Cole said. “This is probably not the best atmosphere to sit down and talk about some of these things.”

The Senate’s appropriations wish list has a five-bill combo of the Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Interior-Environment measures. House appropriators favor a smaller package. Read More

NDAA Watch

A compromise military policy bill could be released as soon as today if Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) gets his way.

Roxana Tiron reports that the next National Defense Authorization Act is being talked about on a parallel track with the appropriations discussions, which could slow things down. But it’s very high on the congressional priority list, with leaders trying to move it through both chambers before Christmas. Read More

And don’t forget the issue that drove the government into shutdown — looming increases in ACA health insurance premiums. Tran has more on the Capitol’s crowded agenda in this morning’s Congress Tracker.

Fed Chair Chosen

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has decided on his pick to chair the Federal Reserve chair, and he expects the nominee to cut interest rates.

While Trump did not name his pick, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News last week that White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Trump’s chief economic adviser, is seen as the likely choice to succeed Powell. Read More

Later today, the Fed chair who has tangled with Trump, Jerome Powell, is scheduled to deliver brief remarks and participate in a panel discussion at Stanford University.

Fed policy-makers are about a week away from their next interest rate-setting meeting. For some Fed-watchers, the question isn’t whether the benchmark interest rates will change but by how much, given that the unemployment rate has been rising and household credit is tightening, with the latest New York Fed survey showing high auto and mortgage rejection rates.

Where’s Heritage?

Our lobbying beat writer, Kate Ackley, noticed something missing in the third-quarter disclosure reports: the usual robust expenditures of a high-profile advocacy operation.

The lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation is in a rebuilding phase after some top staff turnover, and reported expenditures at their lowest level since 2010.

“Our mission is stronger than ever,” said Tiffany Justice, Heritage Action’s new executive vice president. “We had some staff changes that accounted for the drop in spending.” Justice, a founder of Moms for Liberty, replaced Ryan Walker, who’s now with Google. Sarah Ursprung, a former Heritage Action lobbyist, went to the Education Department this year, and Charli Huddleston, who had been director of communications, moved to the Brunswick Group. Read More

Peace Talks

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met in Florida with a Ukrainian delegation before Witkoff leads a US delegation in Russia this week, Fabiola Zerpa and Eric Martin report.

The two sides discussed potential parameters for a ceasefire as they pored over a 19-point proposal that emerged in Geneva last week — as well as the status of a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant that is the biggest in Europe, people familiar with the discussions said. Read More

• The conversation comes at a delicate moment, when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is facing mounting domestic pressure because of a corruption scandal. Andriy Yermak, his closest ally and top aide who had been leading the peace talks, was forced to submit his resignation on Friday. Read More
• Also Read: Ukraine Seeks €1 Billion More to Buy US Weapons by Year-End

Meanwhile, in Venezuela: Trump told reporters Sunday that people shouldn’t read much into his social media post — addressed to airlines and “Drug Dealers” — in which he said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed. Trump confirmed he held a phone call recently with President Nicolas Maduro but declined to describe how it went. He also downplayed concerns from Republican lawmakers about a potentially illegal fatal strike on a damaged boat in the Caribbean. Read More

How Well Do You Know Washington — Tax Break Edition

Private rocket-launch facilities at spaceports now can benefit from the same kind of infrastructure tax breaks long available to airports.

As a result, the federal government could lose out on more than $1 billion in uncollected revenue over a decade — part of a bet that every lost dollar will fuel the industry and help the US compete with China. This week’s quiz looks at the states that could benefit. How many have spaceports?
A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 15

Scroll down for the answer.

Immigration Crackdown

Details are scarce so far about new limits on legal migration being threatened by Trump. Among the unknowns: how changes would be made, which countries would be targeted, and how sweeping the actions could be.

Catherine Lucey, Josh Wingrove, and Jimmy Jenkins report that the questions were raised on Thanksgiving night, when Trump said he would permanently pause migration from “all Third World Countries,” “terminate” what he called “illegal admissions” under former President Joe Biden and end federal benefits for non-citizens.

The president also said he would deport foreign nationals deemed a security risk and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.” Read More

Did You Ace the Quiz?

As Zach C. Cohen reported in his deep dive into the spaceport tax break, the US currently has 20 spaceports: one each in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, and Oklahoma; two each in California and Virginia; four in Texas; and six in Florida.

Give yourself a star if you selected Option C — 10 states.

Before You Go

Autopen: We’ll be watching for follow-through and legal pushback after Trump said he’ll terminate every document former President Joe Biden signed with an autopen. Autopens have been used in multiple presidencies, and their use can be traced back to the 1940s during Harry Truman’s administration. Read More

‘Jurisdictional Mess': As an Ohio senator, JD Vance in 2022 joined the National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee in suing the FEC over the regulation on campaign spending limits. Now he’s vice president and not officially a candidate for anything, and Justin Wise reports that a court brief argues that Vance is no longer a party with a proper legal claim. “This case is a jurisdictional mess,” the court brief says. Read More

Not Easy: Recent exercises show a steep learning curve as the Army works to integrate cutting-edge drones — and how to defeat them — into battlefield planning, Courtney McBride reports. Read More

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