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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 by Notice political reporter Reese Gorman.
And Reese Gorman, in the final week here of this lame duck Congress, we're facing a Friday deadline to fund the government past December 20th.
Start there.
What needs to happen this week?
Is Congress on track?
Yeah, so the government's not going to shut down.
They're going to come to some agreement, but right now, this is, it's just kind of negotiated until ongoing.
The plan was originally for Johnson and leadership to release the text of the continued resolution yesterday.
It was supposed to be sometime in the early afternoon, early evening, around there.
And then they didn't release it.
And the reason why is because there's still some fighting going on.
So Republicans really want aid to farmers, end of the bill.
And obviously if you want to add, but they need Democrats to support it.
So they're like, Democrats will look at it like, oh, if Republicans want this, then we need to get something out of it.
So currently there's a lot of back and forth over what they're going to add.
Democrats have a lot of demands that they can meet.
For example, one of it is like 100 % funding for the bridge in Baltimore that currently collapsed, as well as some other things.
So there's some back and forth there trying to get negotiations.
Additionally, there are some Republicans that are really upset about this kind of thing.
What is funding for farmers?
How did that come up in Canada this year?
Well, if you're going to give Republicans this, then...
You still need our support, so we're going to need something in return.
And so it's really just kind of stalling the whole negotiations.
And then remind people, if they do pass this, how long of a continuing resolution this is.
It's more than likely, the rumor here, is until the beginning of March.
So Johnson really wants to kind of get something into March, which, as I've reported before, as well, is that there's a lot of Republicans that are upset about that.
I mean, this could be well into Trump's first 100 days, so they're going to have to be dealing with reconciliation.
With Senate confirmation, so they're gonna be having to deal with a lot, and then you're gonna throw government funding on their plate.
Additionally, there's likely gonna be a 217 -215 majority.
It's likely going to be a very slim majority, because you're gonna have Matt Gaetz, who's already resigned.
His seat's not gonna be filled by then.
Mike Waltz is going to be resigning on January 20th.
He's gonna be National Security Advisor.
You're gonna have Elise Stefanik, who likely will be confirmed by then, so she won't be a member of the House anymore.
So that's going to be a no margin, because a tie in the House fails.
And so you're going to have no margin for error, and it's already tough enough, as we're seeing today, to pass any kind of legislation, especially spending bills.
But they will have a Republican Senate, which makes things easier on that side.
It does make it easier on that side, yes.
But again, they're going to need 60 votes to get anything passed for government funding, and they're only going to have 53 votes.
So they're going to have to kind of do some bipartisanship there to get to that 60 -vote threshold in the Senate.
And as we know, bipartisanship in the House...
So, what's the alternative?
A 12 -month, 9 -month government funding bill, CR?
If he would...
There's a lot of members that I talked to that said they would have preferred just to quote -unquote clear the decks, which would have meant get funding off the plate, actually do the spending bills, actually do the appropriations like they're supposed to, not just do a continued resolution.
Obviously, with only, what is it, four days now, that's not a possibility.
And so people realize that this is now Johnson's only option.
I talked to Steve Womack in my story.
He was just upset.
He said there's a lack of leadership.
They don't have leadership right now because what's happening...
So RFK Jr. is going to be up.
Up on the Hill for the first time well, not first time as nominee he's gonna be meeting with senators and so he's really gonna be making this pitch, as we've seen it's been.
He did not have a good end of the week last week and, you see, Mitch Mcconnell um kind of came out, not against Rfk Jim by any means, but basically saying hey, like we should kind of back off this kind of skepticism.
The polio vaccine, Mitch Mcconnell, famously a polio survivor himself, John Corden, tweeted out an article that was looked at as a subtle jab at RFK about the polio vaccine.
So there is some people that are...
RFK's going to have some tough questions, especially about kind of his stances that he's taken in the past on these vaccines.
Obviously, especially when you look at McConnell, who is a polio survivor, he knows the effectiveness of these vaccines, and he doesn't want to see these go away.
You talk about the headlines late last week.
The headlines continue this morning.
This is the front page of the New York Times.
Kennedy aide filed to revote.
I do not know exactly if they're going to be meeting necessarily this week, but I do know that he is going to be meeting with him sometime before the confirmation hearing, and he's going to want to get answers to these questions.
I mean, that headline was exactly what McConnell was referring to.
I mean, that is something that he does not want to be reading on the front page of any newspaper.
And so I do imagine that he will be meeting with them 100 % before the confirmation hearing.
Anyone else on the Hill this week that you're watching for?
I think I'm going to be, I mean, obviously Pete Hegseth, as I reported, I mean, he kind of salvaged his nomination.
It was looking grim for a second there.
I mean, there's reports, I mean, I also reported that Ron DeSantis was being considered as a replacement.
He was really struggling.
I mean, he was going through, he was getting these tough questions, stories coming out about his past, and he salvaged this.
He kept fighting.
He pushed forward with the help of people like Donald Trump Jr., J .D. Vance, Breitbart, Charlie Kirk.
They all kind of did this pressure campaign because they saw how Senate Republicans were emboldened after Matt Gaetz may effectively be killing the Matt Gaetz nomination, saying that you're not going to be Attorney General, we don't want you to be Attorney General.
They knew that if, heck, Seth, the same thing happened, Senate Republicans would be emboldened and be like, we're more powerful than Trump.
We can...
We're good to go.
We're good to go.
I think?
We're good to go.
Democrats, 202 -748 -8000.
Independents, 202 -748 -8002.
If you want to read his stories, it is notice .org.
For viewers who are not familiar, what is Notice?
So Notice stands for News of the United States.
A little play on POTUS, CODUS.
It's founded by Robert Albritton.
It's about a year old.
We have the Notice side, which is basically this news side, which reporters such as myself and others who cover Capitol Hill, cover national politics, cover the White House, cover energy and environment, the DOJ.
And then there's also a fellowship side of it, which is we have 20 fellows now.
There's 10 fellows in the first class, 10 fellows in the second, where these are people who are not necessarily all new to journalism.
Some people might have done local journalism, some might be fresh out of college, some we have some one person who's a veteran, who who We're good to go.
Why include that as part of the notice mission?
Why a teaching hospital for journalists?
Up here covering national news.
And then, well, as we know, local news, where, I mean, I spent three years in local news.
I love it.
It is, I mean, it's coming harder and harder to find good local news outlets because they're getting, whether it's getting bought up by hedge funds, and also if you do find one, they don't pay very well.
And so I think his idea was he really wanted to train this new breed and kind of brand of journalist and kind of bring them up here and kind of teach them how to do it.
And then the idea is that they have a two -year contract, so they're fellows for two years, and then afterwards, the idea is that they get a job while they're in We just did an hour -long segment on trust in news in the United States,
Americans' views on the news industry in the wake of the 2024 election as we enter 2025, as we enter another Donald Trump administration.
Where do you think that stands as somebody who can look at it from the inside out?
I think, I mean, it's 100 % that the trust in news is down, right?
I think that there's, I mean, people are watching the news less, and I think we saw as well, I mean, they're getting their news through other medias, whether it be podcasts, whether it be kind of different news segments.
So I think it's something that definitely we have to look internally and be like, why are people not trusting us?
What are we doing?
And I think it's...
I mean, it's just an objective fact that people don't trust us anymore.
I mean, we've lost the trust of a lot of the American people, so I think it's just more of an introspective thing we have to look at.
Like, why are people trusting us?
What are we doing?
What have we done for the past 10 years that has led to this point?
And really try to gain the trust back of the American people.
It's not going to be an overnight thing, but it's something that we just, I think, have to really attempt to do and really commit to it.
So, example, how do you bring that into a story about...
We're good to go.
Talking about that out in the open.
I think just being as fair as possible.
I think listening to people and giving both sides and not necessarily implementing your opinion or what you think is best for a CR with this.
I think talking people, I think the way it kind of goes with building relationships with sources as well.
Whenever you're working on a story, people don't want to just feel like you are talking to them.
You don't actually care what they say.
You think they're stupid.
They actually want to feel heard.
They want to feel listened to.
So I think actually talking to these people that are involved in these things and then reporting the news kind of as fact there.
I mean, obviously there's subjective truths that you implement in, but I think that, I mean, you don't just go talking to a member of Congress who might be opposed to the CR and be like, oh, why are you opposed?
You want to shut down?
That's kind of dumb.
No, you'd be like, oh, well, like, why are you opposed?
Actually, listen, hear them out.
Be like, okay, well, like, we'll put their point in because there's people out there in America that will see their point and be like, I agree with what they're saying.
So the CR is happening this week.
What else is happening on Capitol Hill that could impact Americans at the end of a lame duck Congress when we're all focused on the regular end of the year funding fight, the scramble, the potential for a government shutdown?
What else is happening that people may not be paying as much attention to?
Down the road we're going to find out, oh, that's the thing that actually had a lot of impact on people.
I mean, the sentence could be passing the NDAA this week, hopefully, so that's their...
Explain what the NDAA is.
NDAA is the National Defense Authorization Act.
It's basically the annual defense act that kind of gets in and kind of gives just anything the military can do, that's what the NDAA is, and it really is there to kind of...
It funds things, it kind of gives the military more power, different powers here and there, and it has to be authorized every single year.
So the House passed it.
And obviously, for the most part, it usually is pretty easily bypassable.
In recent history, it's been more and more difficult.
There's always kind of these sects that oppose it, but it always passes pretty overwhelmingly.
It's just a fight to kind of get in and out things.
I know that, I mean, Mike Rogers of the House Armed Services had said that there are things in it that he wished weren't in it at this point in time, but end of the day, kind of John's had to put it in and get Republican support.
What's one of those things?
One of those things I believe was kind of that they put in one of the culture items of no funding for transgender surgeries for military members.
And I think that Question from Twitter,
JD writing in, Mr. Gorman, in your opinion, what are the top three legislative priorities for Congress in the first week?
Of the new Congress.
With Trump's transition in mind, I definitely think reconciliation is going to be a big one.
They're going to try to.
They're working on how what it's going to look like.
Reconciliation is basically where you can pass something through the Senate at a filibuster proof, so it only needs a simple majority to pass, and it's basically how parties in power kind of get their big issues through.
Biden did it multiple times when he had both the House and the Senate, and now Trump's going to do it.
So what?
What's the talk right now is what reconciliation can look like, but that's definitely gonna be One of the top legislative priorities.
I mean, there's talking between one bill and two bills.
So if there's two bills, the first bill would be border energy, kind of these big issues that are not necessarily tax -related that Trump has talked about.
And so they'll try to get that through, which would be just a simple joy in the House, a simple joy in the Senate that would pass.
And then second priority would likely be taxes, would be kind of reauthorization of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017, which more commonly known as the Trump tax cuts.
That there's raising the SALT caps, which is something Trump has promised to do, that includes stuff like no tax on tips that he's emphasized.
And so those things right there are stuff that he will also be focusing on.
And then also, I mean, just border security net large.
I mean, there's stuff that, yes, will have to go through Congress, but there's also stuff Trump is going to do by executive order, that he said he's going to do by executive order, that he can do on the first couple days of his administration.
And so I think those are things that you're going to look at as some of the top priorities.
Why is reconciliation a sort of get -out -of -the -60 -vote -majority -free card for the party in power?
It's a parliamentary thing.
So, I mean, it's basically just a way, it's called budget reconciliation, where it's not everything to be used for.
So you can't just have your broad priorities.
You can't just be like, oh, I want to, like, do X.
It has to be the parliamentarian.
They're definitely going to...
Who's the parliamentarian?
Beulah is out of Clarksville, Tennessee.
Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you doing?
Doing well.
You're on with Reese Corman.
What's your question or comment?
My comment is something that I continue to use with everybody.
It's very simple and what we can understand as we move forward in elections, and that is using a football analogy for our positions.
One of the things that we did at this election was that we dropped the ball.
We had a good quarterback, Joe Biden.
He dropped the ball at the debate, but instead of us coming and huddling up whenever the referee throw the yellow flag, we walked off the field.
So we can't do that in the future.
We have to come together and huddle up and discuss what is our next play instead of, because we just went willy -nilly.
My belief is that if I were a campaign manager, I would have had Joe Biden, and in the future, any candidate on every news outlet possible the very next day,
reiterating the questions from the moderator of that debate.
And that way, that's where we drop the ball.
But I do have to say that there's one positive, that the Democrats know how to pivot, and we pivoted really quickly.
But I think the football analogy covers any election dog catcher to the president.
So you have a good day and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Reese Gorman, any thoughts on that?
Yeah, I think that she kind of just expressed her opinion there on kind of where she views the Democrats.
And I think it sounds like she thought the Democrats did well in the election.
They did kind of come in on the margins on the House.
They did end up at a net positive, even though they...
Ed, in Jacksonville, Florida, Republican, you're on with Reese Gorman.
What's on your mind?
I do believe that The military did, there was a pay raise in the NDAA.
There was a slight bump in the NDAA.
I do believe that that wasn't there.
Ed, are you former military?
Yes, sir, I sure was.
I did a couple tours in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
And military pay in general, how do you think it is today?
Well, as far as the junior enlisted, I can't get over that Congress looked after our junior enlisted so well because they've been so far behind.
I think it's going to be like 14 .5.
That would be great for them guys.
Under the deal reached by the House and Senate, the National Defense Operations Act will allow all service members to receive a 4 .5 % pay bump next year.
Junior troops, a 14 .5 % pay raise.
The caller with that number.
And that was something that...
Just a couple minutes left here.
What didn't we get to this week, and we got to a lot already, that you're going to be covering and watching for?
100%.
I do really think that the government funding is going to be one of the biggest things.
And then also, I mean, on reconciliation, I think that they're going to come out.
There are some people like Jason Smith, who's the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, that wants a one, just a one straight bill of reconciliation.
He doesn't want to do two.
He just wants one because his worry is that if you, because a lot of people do not want to vote for tax cuts.
They believe that sometimes it might kind of just bolster the national debt.
And so he wants to put everything together, be like, look, if you want the border, you want this energy stuff, you're going to have to vote for taxes as well, because it's all in one bill.
So his worry is basically that if you just separate it up, it's going to, people are all going to be happy about this one kind of, these priorities of Republican kind of red meat issues, and they're not going to want to vote for tax cuts.
So that's his worry.
So those negotiations are going to play out over the next couple days, and obviously into January 20th as well.
But they're going to be, Johnson has not necessarily came out and said where he stands.
He's told me.
He believes that a two -step reconciliation package is likely what's going to happen, but they're still kind of working and talking about that.
I do think government funding is going to be a big deal.
House has a 72 -hour rule, so it means from when they release a text, they can't vote on a bill until 72 hours after the text is released.
Right now, we're looking at a Thursday vote with the government shutting down on Friday, so we're really kind of cutting it close here.
But, I mean, when does the Congress ever...
Good morning, John.
If the news media, the major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, want to restore their credibility, they've got to quit misleading the...