With just three days left to avert a government shutdown, congressional leaders still haven’t reached an agreement on a stopgap bill.
The core of the legislation will center around extending government funding to some time in March 2025. In September, Congress passed a temporary stopgap to keep the government funded through Dec. 20.
With the Christmas recess fast approaching, several lawmakers are anxious to get the issue dealt with quickly.
However, a series of other legislative riders—including the farm bill, emergency funding for hurricane relief, and some health measures—are being negotiated to potentially be added to the bill.
According to Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), the bill is expected to come in at around 1500 pages and could be voted on by the House as early as Dec. 18.
What the bill will ultimately include, however, remains unclear.
For some Republicans, the added content in the CR makes it look more like the long-despised end-of-year “omnibus” spending bill, which has historically wrapped all government funding into one large, single package.
“The CR is looking more and more like an omnibus in the sense that we don’t know what’s in it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters on Dec. 16. “They need to saddle up and ride and get this thing put together and keep it to the bare minimum, in my opinion.”
Kennedy indicated he would be a “no” vote on the legislation.
Burchett, who veers toward the right flank of the House GOP conference, was also critical.
“Another CR will be dropped on our desks compliments of the DC Sewer Uniparty. This is not what America voted for,” Burchett said in a post on X before the release of the CR.
Still, Kennedy and other lawmakers have expressed confidence that the government won’t be shut down.
—Joseph Lord
TRUMP'S FIRST POST-ELECTION PRESSER
President-elect Donald Trump hosted his first press conference on Dec. 16 after winning the 2024 presidential election, discussing a range of topics from the Russia-Urkaine war to his thoughts on the recent drone sightings in the North East.
While taking questions from reporters, Trump also discussed plans to reevaluate childhood vaccines through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the chances of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointing Lara Trump to claim Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) seat next year, and U.S. foreign policy.
A potential pardon for indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams may also be in the works, Trump confirmed on Wednesday from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
After sharing dinner with HHS chair nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the heads of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, two major pharmaceutical companies, Trump said the team would be looking into autism and vaccines to see if there are any credible links.
After the initial paper purporting to show a link between vaccines and autism was retracted, subsequent research has repeatedly found no links between vaccines and autism cases.
Trump said he did not want Kennedy to revoke any vaccines and would instead “come back with a report as to what he thinks,” generating a report that would accomplish two tasks: introduce cost savings and initiate “very serious discussions,” such as limiting pesticides in vaccines.
“I think [Kennedy’s] going to be much less radical than you would think. I think he’s got a very open mind,” Trump said. “We’re going to get drug costs down at levels that nobody has ever seen before.”
Commenting on the prospect of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, being appointed by DeSantis to fill Rubio’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, the president-elect said he “probably” didn’t expect the appointment to happen.
“Ron is doing a good job. It is his choice, nothing to do with me,” Trump said. “Ron’s gonna have to make that decision, and he'll make the right decision.”
He also chimed in on the recent spate of purported drone sightings in airspace above states like New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
“The government knows what is happening,” Trump said. “For some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”
Trump wasn’t sure if Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Regime, would attend his inauguration ceremony next month.
“China and the United States can, together, solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it. So it’s very important,” Trump said. “He’s an amazing person.”
After a “very good conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently, Trump suggested he thinks achieving peace in the Middle East will be easier than brokering a cease-fire deal between Russia and Ukraine.
“The Russia, Ukraine situation, I see that as more difficult,” Trump said. “I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia. I think that was a bad thing, and that brought the Koreans in [from] North Korea.”
He also suggested he may consider pardoning Eric Adams after the mayor was indicted in September on federal corruption charges.
“I think that he was treated pretty unfairly,” Trump said.
A frustrated Trump suggested the Biden administration was committing a “criminal act” of reportedly trying to sell off portions of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border after the Daily Wire released an investigative report quoting sources from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“They know we’re going to use it, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it, and it'll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars,” Trump said.
—Jacob Burg
BOOKMARKS
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to inherit an economy weighed down by a steep annual inflation rate, as much as 3 percent by some estimates. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen doesn’t foresee a quick fix, saying, “I don’t expect the level of prices to go down. Some prices will be higher than they were before the pandemic and will stay higher.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has received a “no confidence” vote from Parliament after calling an election on Dec. 16. The election follows a collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition and a second consecutive year of economic downturn.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland revealed that she is resigning from Canada’s Liberal Party due to differences with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Her resignation comes the same day Housing Minister Sean Fraser stepped down and follows the removal of Randy Boissonnault, who faces inquiries into past business dealings.
Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Dec. 16 that he had not planned to flee Syria but only traveled to Russia to “oversee combat operations.” His departure was made permanent when “it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen,” he said in a statement.
The Assad family’s regime in Syria has been toppled after decades, and now the hunt is on for key members of his administration, some of whom have been convicted internationally for war crimes. Courts in Los Angeles, Illinois, and Paris—as well as the terrorist group that overthrew the Assads—have joined in the global manhunt.
