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The deadline is January 20th, 2025.
On Mondays when Congress is in session, we like to take a look at the week ahead in Washington to do that.
This morning, we're joined once again by Scott McFarland, congressional correspondent with CBS News.
And Scott McFarlane, last week, we were focused on Republican leadership elections for the 119th Congress.
This week, House Democrats have their turn at leadership elections to pick their leaders.
What are we expecting?
Any uncertainties at this point?
At this moment of unique instability here in Washington, these leadership elections are actually quite stable.
Democrats made that sea change a couple years ago when Nancy Pelosi and Stenny Hoyer stepped back after a generation in leadership, and the new generation appears to still have the galvanized support of their membership.
It's Hakeem Jeffries of New York will be the House Democratic leader.
The number two will be Catherine Clark of Massachusetts.
Number three will be Pete Aguilar of California.
They've been in place the last two years and what House Democrats have been telling us repeatedly since November 5th is they didn't suffer losses overall in this election, unlike the Senate, unlike the White House.
There's a bit of stability coast to coast and how House Democrats perform.
They wanted to get the majority.
They're going to come up short, but they didn't suffer the wounds suffered by the rest of the party nationwide.
And they're quite bullish on some of the successes they had in some spots in America.
House Democrats did really well in New York State.
They flipped three Republican seats blue despite the headwinds of this election, which speaks well to the Democratic leader who, of course, John is from New York.
When it comes to a minority leader in the House, what makes a good minority leader?
What has Hakeem Jeffries brought to that job in the time since he stepped in and taken over that position?
First of all, when you are in the minority in the U.S. House, you really do not have any ability to control what's on the House floor.
That's completely out of your hands.
So you have two skills.
You have the ability to message, to communicate, to tell America why things should be different.
And you have the ability to get at congressional hearings some arguments before the public when the minority asks their questions of witnesses and gives their statements.
Pretty limited bandwidth of power.
But over the last year, Hakeem Jeffries has wielded power I can't remember another minority leader wielding.
The Republicans have been so stalemated, so gridlocked by that incredibly narrow majority that they've been unable to pass basic things like keeping the government open, spending bills, raising the debt ceiling to avoid a calamity, doing the basic blocking and tackling of government.
Hakeem Jeffries has had to intervene and come in with a whole bunch of his votes to get government to actually function.
We'll see if he's willing to do that in an all-Republican-controlled Washington, not a divided-controlled Washington next year.
But also an incredibly small margin separating Republicans and Democrats in the House.
Once again, we don't know the final numbers, but we're waiting to see those final couple of seats.
Take us over to the Senate side, Senate Democrats, their leadership team.
What do we know at this point?
Still a bit of stability in the leadership ranks.
We're not sure just yet until there are final projections made in Pennsylvania whether it's a 53-47 Senate, if you include the independents who caucus with the Democrats, or somehow, against expectations, 52-48.
Either way, Democrats who've been running the Senate for a while now become the minority party.
A little more leverage the minority has in the Senate.
You do have the ability to impact what happens on the Senate floor.
You have the ability to hold up some of what the president or the Senate leadership wants to do.
But every indication is that the leadership stays the same.
It's Chuck Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, both of whom are using this final bit of runway they have to try to be impactful.
Chuck Schumer has been trying to confirm some more of President Biden's judicial nominations.
And there was Dick Durbin last week, John, trying to press as the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman to get all those Matt Gates ethics files over to the Senate for their confirmation hearings.
He has the ability as the Democratic majority whip right now and ultimately the Democratic chair of this committee till January 3rd to try to push some levers.
What is Jon Thune's relationship with Chuck Schumer?
We're so used to Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.
What do we need to know about that?
Oh, we're going to find that out, aren't we?
20 years together.
I mean, John Thune started in the U.S. Senate in 2005, so this is his 20th year with Chuck Schumer.
Chuck Schumer issued a statement of support for John Thun, congratulating him on his election as a Republican leader.
That may just be traditional Senate collegiality.
We're about to find that out.
Jon Thune has never been, never come across as somebody who has been particularly antagonistic towards Chuck Schumer, nor vice versa, but the roles sure are changing.
I think that's one of the big questions to answer over the next six months.
On roles changing, we talked about Nancy Pelosi stepping away from leadership Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries coming in.
Now we have Mitch McConnell stepping away after a very long time as the leader of Senate Republicans, John Thune stepping in.
But Mitch McConnell's term runs through 2026.
What is his role going to be now that he's not one of the first people to speak at the beginning of the day in the Senate?
Where does he fit in now as just another senator?
This is so untraditional, isn't it?
I mean, think of the last sets of speakers of the House who, when they left that position, left the House altogether.
Dennis Haster, John Boehner, Paul Ryan gone.
These are the types of things that have been tradition.
Nancy Pelosi has been this Democratic backbencher, but hasn't really carried it that way.
She's been a force on cable and network television, giving her opinions.
She was potentially pivotal in President Biden's decision to stand down as Democratic nominee for the White House and remains this impactful operator working alongside the rest of her caucus and the leadership.
That's untraditional.
They may still be trying to navigate that.
Now you have Mitch McConnell, who will be a rank-and-file senator with a vote.
How does that work in concert with John Thune?
It's going to be fascinating to find out, but I also note who are the dissenting voices in the Republican conference for some of the more controversial things Donald Trump wants to do.
We've seen in President-elect Trump's first term, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were dissenting voices.
Does Mitch McConnell join that group?
On some things, because he's had criticisms of Donald Trump in the past, and the Senate Republicans can lose only three Republican votes and get that majority for things Donald Trump wants to do.
If Mitch McConnell sometimes joins the caucus of dissenters, there's very little margin for error.
Scott McFarland with us until about 8.40 this morning, taking your phone calls about a lot of issues in Washington.
The week ahead in Washington is how we usually describe this Monday morning segment.
202-748-8000 for Democrats to call in.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
As folks are calling in, besides leadership elections, what else is on the agenda this week?
Let's start with what happens late today.
The House and Rules Committee is taking up this matter of whether to find, as a U.S. House of Representatives, the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, in contempt of Congress.
The Republican-led U.S. House has had concerns with how Anthony Blinken has responded to their committee investigating the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
There's been a back and forth between the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Secretary Blinken.
It will culminate with some vote this week likely to find him in contempt.
Doesn't mean in the final days of this administration the Attorney General would prosecute Anthony Blinken for contempt of Congress.
It may be more of a political matter, but it's one the House Republicans want to dispense with while they can while the Biden administration is still in power.
Also, at some point, the Congress is going to have to refill the Small Business Administration's disaster loan fund.
That thing was tapped out by Hurricanes Helene and Hurricane Maria.
They're out of money.
They've been raising red flags at the administration for a month now that they're out of money for the small businesses and homeowners who need emergency loans to rebuild.
Congress has got to get about refilling those coffers.
Some of the disaster state senators and congressmembers have been raising alarms about this.
The administration did so earlier this morning.
Congress won't tend to that today or tomorrow, but they'll have to tend to it soon.
And where are we on government funding?
It's always an issue at the end of the year, correct?
December 20th is the deadline.
There are very few legislative days left between now and then, so they'll have to get after that.
They're not going to pass all the appropriations bills robustly in the traditional way.
They'll need another short-term continuing resolution to keep the government functioning for a matter of months so they can go back toward it again in 2025.
It's a matter of whether they kick the can to about March or try to kick it all the way to September and give either President-elect Trump an ability to weigh in on this early or give him some time and space from this issue to do other things and wait till September.
Is there an effort by Democrats, though, while they still control two of the levers of power, the Senate and the White House, to try to move some sort of government spending bill or have more of Joe Biden's fingerprint on what happens in this next spending bill?
Or at this point, is it just lame ducks all around?
They have the capacity to impact, and they may take this last opportunity with any levers of power to do so.
Some of the things Democrats have told me they're interested in securing.
How about more disaster relief funding?
How about some federal commitments to pay for Baltimore Bridge rebuilding?
A commitment, not the money yet, but let's make sure the federal government signs on the dotted line that it will help fund the rebuild of the key bridge.
There are other things that they have interests in that they want to secure, but as has been the case for the last two years, John, they may have to provide the votes to pass this thing in the U.S. House.
They have an awful lot of leverage for now.
Question from Jimbo out of California.
Can Mr. McFarland speculate as to what the Republican-held Congress will be able to accomplish in the first 100 days with the exception of the extension of the Trump tax cuts?
But you can throw that in there as well.
Plenty to talk about.
Oh, Jimbo saw my answer coming and warded it off at the last second.
Yeah, those tax cuts are something the House Speaker has said will be part of their 100-day or first 100-day plan.
So yeah, you're right there.
They seem to be in unison on doing what they can as a chamber to get those things extended.
What else?
Well, there's been a lot of talk from the incoming administration about border issues, deportations, removal of some number of migrants, criminal actors or otherwise.
That takes money.
That takes manpower.
That takes more money and more manpower than may be in place right now.
So you'd look for the House Republican Conference to pass some type of appropriation funding for border initiatives and border efforts.
And though this very narrow majority in the U.S. House for Republicans has splintered on so many things, every little thing seems to break off just a few folks, and that makes it an untenable majority.
They may be lined up on that.
Let me go to Nancy in Connecticut Line for Democrats.
Nancy, you're on with Scott McFarlane.
Hi, good morning.
Over the last two weeks, Trump and the GOP have not said a word, a word about the economy, not a word about lowering inflation, not about a word stopping price gouging, nothing about affordable housing for the American people, nothing about lowering the rent.
Just as Trump did during his campaign, he never had detailed issues about these things.
All he told his supporters was, I'll fix it.
So I was just curious about your opinion on that, how he's not addressing all these issues of, I think, why the American people voted for him.
Thank you.
And Nancy's picking up on a point that a number of Democrats have alerted me to, that if this is a priority and a mandate to come in and deal with those pernicious issues of food prices, housing prices, you want to note the order in which he has rolled out his potential nominees for his cabinet.
He's talked about his Attorney General candidate, his UN Ambassador, Secretary of State, but there have been no moves publicly to name somebody for the Secretary of the Treasury or the Consumer Watchdog Groups or the Housing and Urban Development Department.
It would seem that if you're trying to triage most important issues, and if inflation and prices is the most important issue, you'd want to start there with your Treasury, your tax-based, consumer-based agencies, and housing-based agencies.
That has not happened.
That may be a political reality Nancy is flagging for the rest of the nation.
If he doesn't get around to doing that soon, it is a statement of values and priorities.
James in Fairfax asked Scott about the January 6th criminals and pardons.
He's been reporting on this consistently and for many years at this point.
What's the latest on that?
Yeah, James, it's a question we're all watching because it's in kinetic motion as we speak.
There's a growing number of January 6th defendants who have gone to the courts and asked for the rest of their proceedings, their sentencings, their conferences, their plea hearings, to be delayed until after January 20th, citing specifically that Trump has pledged pardons.
So far, in the overwhelming number of those requests, judges have said no, that's speculative.
We're not postponing your criminal cases on a potential promise of a politician for pardons.
But those defendants are making an unequivocal argument that there are pardons to be expected, that pardons have been promised, and that there's an expectation from those defendants some pardons are coming.
But there's an issue here that is transcended on the issue of January 6th, that Trump hasn't specified if everybody from January 6th gets a pardon or if only certain parts of the population of January 6th defendants are going to get pardons.
Those who pleaded guilty, those convicted at trial, those who cases are still pending.
He hasn't put layers here and to say this group gets them, this group won't.
So that's the big question between now and January 20th is, is it everybody?
Is it some?
Ultimately, is it anybody?
What has Matt Gaetz said on this topic?
Matt Gaetz is one of the few members of Congress who has actually been outside the Washington, D.C. jail at the nightly vigil protest on behalf of the January 6th defendants.
That's still going on?
It goes on every night.
It's been going on for multiple years now.
Holidays, Sundays, rainy days, snowy days, they're out there.
Matt Gaetz has paid a pilgrimage there before, and he has been particularly unambiguous with his arguments that he believes the Department of Justice is overreached in the January 6th cases.
In all of them, in the January 6th cases, it's kind of a big umbrella.
I recognize that.
He also hasn't specified if there are some that are worthy and meritorious, or if all of them are unworthy and non-meritorious.
That's really the big issue that I see as somebody who's covered January 6th since the start.
Those who criticize the prosecutions, those who defend the defendants, haven't really delineated if there's anybody who was justifiably prosecuted or if there's a subset of people who stand out from the others.
If there's any contrasts among this big population, we're about to find out what the Trump administration says about this because come January 20th, there's an awful lot of people in prison or who have family members who've been convicted who are expecting pardons.
Out of curiosity, who runs that nightly vigil?
The nightly vigil is run by the wife of the first January 6th defendant convicted at trial, a Texas man who was the first to go to trial and first to be convicted by a jury, and the mother of Ashley Babbitt, who was in that crowd and was shot breaching the window to the House Speaker's lobby.
The two of them, along with some volunteers, have been tireless in running this vigil.
Where did they set up?
Is it on the courthouse grounds?
It's at the jail.
So there's a protest space literally on the curb of a driveway at the jail that they've cordoned off.
It's streamed to a pretty large audience.
Where's the D.C. jail?
D.C. Jail is not far from Capitol Hill and the U.S. Capitol itself, ironically.
It's in southeast Washington, D.C., near the old football stadium where the Washington football team used to play.
More calls.
This is Mike Waiting in North Carolina Republican.
Mike, good morning.
Good morning.
Yes, I like to just comment a little bit about the hit piece here network done on 60 Minutes on all of Trump's cabinet pics.
You never did contradict any of Biden's pics like what does Pete Bootjudge have his experience?
He was a mayor.
He didn't have nothing about transportation.
And of course, Rachel Levine.
We'll leave that one alone.
But you talk about the cost of illegal immigration.
You know, you talk about it's going to cost a lot to deport them and everything.
There's already 1.2 million removal orders and this administration has not carried out none of them.
And it's just, and you go see how much annually a year, how much illegal immigration immigrants from housing, food, schooling, everything, health is almost a half a trillion dollars.
This here eliminate, getting them moved out of this country is going to cost taxpayers less when it comes to it.
That's Mike in North Carolina.
Lot there, what do you want to pick up?
Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there.
He mentions the cost of illegal immigration deportation.
It does cost money to get more border agents and more immigrations and customs enforcement agents and to run whatever program is going to be run.
There may be a cost savings that helps offset that.
In fact, there may be such a cost savings that it ends up paying for that.
It still needs Congress to do some mechanization of the laws and the appropriations process to get that through.
And I think the argument I'm making here is that Congress might have an easy time getting the appropriations and the mechanization in place to make removals happen.
This is one of the things where Congress, the Republican majority in the House, the incoming Republican majority in the Senate, and the incoming White House seem synchronized in lockstep on that.
This may be one of the easier things they do in the initial weeks and months.
And about cabinet appointments, I'm not sure what piece he's referring to about cabinet appointments, but there'll be some share of criticism of cabinet appointments by any president and the opposing party in the U.S. Senate.
This question from X, a bit of a deeper cut.
It's about the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
Chris wanting to know what's going to happen with the race between Debbie Dingell and Jasmine Crockett.
Why is this something to watch?
Why is it important?
Yeah, it is a deep dive.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, was asked about this very race during a press conference on Friday.
This is a relatively, relatively junior member of the U.S. House, Jasmine Crockett, running against a more senior member of the U.S. House, Debbie Dingle in Michigan.
The wife of the late John Dingell.
The wife of the legend John Dingell, who was the dean of the U.S. House for quite a while.
This type of generational battle, if you call it a generational battle, is not uncommon in Congress.
Congresswoman Crockett has been a particularly effective communicator with a rather large following.
Congresswoman Dingell has also been a mainstay of Democratic House members on the cable TV and communications circuit.
Should be an interesting race, but also one that may reveal some fault lines inside the Democratic caucus.
We'll find out.
15 minutes left with Scott McFarland this morning and taking your calls on phone lines for Democrats, Republicans, Independents.
But I did want to ask you about this story because I saw you put it up from last week, I think it was November the 9th, how the birthplace of Grover Cleveland honors his unusual legacy and what the impact has been of the election of Donald Trump.
I know it's not the week ahead on Capitol Hill, but I really want you to explain it.
So Grover Cleveland's the only other president who was elected twice in non-consecutive terms.
And the 22nd and 24th president lost the battle to the 23rd president.
Benjamin Harrison came back, won the presidency back, and shares that connected tissue with Donald Trump now.
Grover Cleveland is the proud son of Caldwell, New Jersey, which is a college town, a suburb of New York City, a distant suburb.
And they have this historic site, his birthplace home, which is operated as a museum and educational center.