The Hill’s Morning Report — The December agenda for Congress

by Kristina Karisch - 12/04/23 6:36 AM ET

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Congress’s countdown to the holiday recess is on, but before members can head back to their families, they face a list of legislative to-dos.

Leading that list is legislation regarding the U.S.-Mexico border, where talks have screeched to a halt as Democratic negotiators have come under intense pressure from progressives and immigration activists, The Hill’s Al Weaver reports, further complicating potential passage of aid for Ukraine in the coming weeks.

While negotiators returned from the Thanksgiving break on an optimistic note, talks have turned stagnant, especially as concern from the left about the direction of talks has gotten louder, and pressure increases to unlock a supplemental deal that can reach President Biden’s desk. Democrats and progressives are upset that Republicans are attempting to chip away at the administration’s humanitarian parole authority — which affords broad discretion to allow certain migrants into the country on a temporary basis — and view it as a total non-starter, especially if no action is taken on behalf of Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. as children.

“It’s a tough balance,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill. “The devil’s in the details. An expectation that we would give up any humanitarian parole program into the future — that’s not going to happen.”

THE FOUR LATINO DEMOCRATS in the Senate — who are not part of the talks — have made clear that the fundamental precept being negotiated is unacceptable to them. The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports that three of them, Sens. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Bob Menéndez (N.J.) joined seven other Senate Democrats, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), to decry the talks.

“Using a one-time spending package to enact these unrelated permanent policy changes sets a dangerous precedent and risks assistance to our international partners,” they wrote. “Any proposal considering permanent changes to our asylum and immigration system needs to include a clear path to legalization for long-standing undocumented immigrants.”

But the negotiations have explicitly excluded any form of legalization, while tying border policy and wartime aid to Ukraine, two previously unrelated issues. Still, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Sunday that the GOP is “making progress” with Democrats over a bill on border security.

“We are making progress on this,” Lankford told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” “This is exceptionally important. When the administration actually put out their national security package, they asked for funding for Israel, for Ukraine, for Taiwan and for the border.”

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died Friday at 93. During a crucial period in American law — when abortion, affirmative action, sex discrimination and voting rights were on the docket — she was the most powerful woman in the country.

▪ Big tech companies are funneling money through a science nonprofit to help pay the salaries of AI staffers in Congress — and it’s just one example of the increasing influence outside-funded fellows are exerting on tech policy in Washington.

▪ The people who were most afraid of the risks of artificial intelligence decided they should be the ones to build it. Then distrust fueled a spiraling competition.

The House took the rare step of expelling George Santos (R-N.Y.) Friday, shrinking the GOP’s already thin majority and depriving Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of a precious vote as the chamber charges toward a series of legislative landmines. And the party’s math problems may be poised to get worse, write The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) is headed for the exits to lead Youngstown State University early next year, and there’s swirling speculation that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will quit Congress early after the House deposed him in historic and embarrassing fashion after just nine months with the gavel.

Republicans lost a seat with Santos’s expulsion, and his district is likely to be a toss-up in the fall. Several other New York Republicans are in toss-up races, signaling just how much is at stake in the Empire State (The Hill). With the GOP conference already strongly divided over a host of high-profile issues, the loss of Santos’s seat could haunt the Speaker and his top deputies, all of whom voted to keep the scandal-plagued New Yorker in Congress.

“Obviously, you want as much of a majority as you can get,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who voted to remove Santos. “But that needs to be separate from this issue of who was just expelled. That is an entirely separate issue that should be outside of the discussion on the majority.”

Morning Report’s Alexis Simendinger will be back in your inboxes Tuesday.

LEADING THE DAY

Israel issued another round of evacuation orders on Sunday in southern Gaza after it resumed fighting with militant group Hamas in the wake of a weeklong truce. The Israeli military ordered evacuations in and near Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, on Sunday, The Associated Press reported. The evacuation orders come after thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza to avoid Israeli attacks in the north, resulting in many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people cramming into the southern part of the territory.

Already under mounting pressure from the United States, Israel appears to be racing to strike a death blow against Hamas — if that’s even possible — before another cease-fire. Israeli forces said Sunday they have found 800 shafts leading to Hamas’ vast subterranean network of tunnels and bunkers since the ground operation began, and have destroyed more than half of them (Reuters). But the mounting toll of the fighting, which Palestinian health officials say has killed several hundred civilians since a week-long truce ended on Friday, further increases pressure to return to the negotiating table.

DURING THE TEMPORARY CEASE-FIRE, Hamas released more than 100 people it had taken hostage in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel in exchange for about 240 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel prisons. U.S. and Israeli officials said the expiration of the truce was Hamas’ fault because it failed to produce a list of hostages — just women and children — to be released Friday (The Hill).

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Sunday that he does not know when discussions to resume a truce between Israel and Hamas will restart, but the White House is making an intense effort to persuade both sides to resume negotiations so they can once again pause hostilities and exchange more prisoners for hostages (The Hill and The New York Times).

“We are still working it really hard, hour by hour, to see if we can get the sides back to the table and see if we can get something moving,” Kirby said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We would like that to happen today. But honestly, I just don’t know.”

▪ Bloomberg News: Israel is calling for Gaza evacuations as the U.S. becomes increasingly vocal in its warnings over civilian deaths.

▪ CNN: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Sunday called for a coalition including the United States, Israel and Arab countries to bring about the demise of Hamas, while also ensuring long-term stability in the region.

“THE DAY AFTER”: The Israelis say they don’t want the job. Arab nations are resisting. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may volunteer, but it’s likely the Palestinian people won’t want him. The Biden administration is beginning to plan for “the day after” in Gaza, working through problematic questions such as who runs the territory once the fighting stops, how it gets rebuilt and, potentially, how it eventually becomes a part of an independent Palestinian state. But U.S. officials are acknowledging the challenge in finding a solution among a list of bad options, which include a return to direct Israeli occupation of the strip. On a trip to Israel and the West Bank last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to advance those discussions, but there were few easy answers (The Washington Post).

“We have no illusions this is going to be easy. We’ll surely have disagreements along the way,” Blinken told reporters while in Tel Aviv. But, he said, “the alternative — more terrorist attacks, more violence, more innocent suffering — is unacceptable.”

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at noon.

The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Irma Carrillo Ramirez to be a U.S. Circuit Court judge for the 5th Circuit.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 12:15 p.m. with Vice President Harris.

The vice president will receive the President’s Daily Brief. She and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the White House Congressional Ball at 6 p.m.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu at 1:30 p.m.

The White House press briefing is scheduled for 1 p.m. NSC spokesperson John Kirby will attend.

ZOOM IN

POLITICS

Republican presidential candidates will face off again on Wednesday in the fourth primary debate in Tuscaloosa, Ala., — on a smaller stage than any of the previous forums. Only three candidates appear to have definitely reached the polling and fundraising requirements from the RNC to participate — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former President Trump, the frontrunner, will not attend.

The debate will be hosted by NewsNation — a news organization owned by Nexstar, which also owns The Hill — and moderated by former Fox News and NBC host Megyn Kelly, NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas, and Eliana Johnson, the editor-in-chief of the conservative news website The Washington Free Beacon (The Hill).

BUZZ AROUND HALEY: Senate Republicans who are concerned about Trump’s viability in a general election now see Haley as the last, best chance of denying Trump the GOP presidential nomination and averting what they see as a potential general election disaster. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports GOP senators who don’t support Trump acknowledge he could win the presidency, given Biden’s weak job approval ratings, but view Haley as much more electable because she does not alienate independent and suburban women voters like Trump does.

The growing buzz around Haley comes at a time when many GOP senators are writing off DeSantis’s chances of staging a comeback.

“She has better prospects than he does because her numbers are going up and his are coming down. Usually, you want to place your bet on someone who is doing better,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has urged Republican donors to coalesce around an alternative to Trump as early as possible in next year’s primary.

HALEY VS. DESANTIS: DeSantis, who was once seen as the definitive challenger to Trump, is facing high stakes for a comeback. DeSantis has been in a battle with Haley for second place for months, as she has steadily gained on him in the polls following several strong debate performances. Polling out of New Hampshire shows Haley surging to second place, while recent polling out of Iowa shows her tied with DeSantis. According to the RealClearPolitics national polling average, Trump leads the pack with 62 percent support, DeSantis comes in second with 13.6 percent support and Haley comes in with 9.6 percent (The Hill).

Haley got another boost last week when Americans for Prosperity Action, the conservative network led by billionaire Charles Koch, backed her 2024 bid. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also called for Democrats to help Haley in her bid.

“Combining that recent victory with a positive debate performance could really solidify her as the most credible alternative to Trump, or in a clear second place,” said Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan and an expert on presidential debates (The Hill).

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Here’s a ranking of the possible candidates Trump could pick as vice president if he clinches the Republican nomination.

▪ Democrats are banking on abortion playing a key role in the Arizona Senate race. The party is leaning into an abortion rights platform, which helped it score numerous victories over the past year in red and purple states.

▪ “Time to be bold.” As the new chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has some tips for the party.

▪ Biden’s role in high-stakes talks between Israel and Hamas is drawing attacks from his 2024 presidential challengers, pulling the fraught issue of hostage negotiations into America’s presidential race.

ELSEWHERE

TRUMP WORLD

Trump and Deutsche Bank’s years-long symbiotic relationship came to the forefront of his New York civil fraud trial last week when top executives who once loaned the former president’s business hundreds of millions of dollars gave the most compelling defense yet in his trial. As The Hill’s Ella Lee reports, the executives bolstered arguments Trump’s counsel has made from the start: that the bank wanted to work with the Trump Organization, did its own due diligence and found no fraud.

The bankers’ testimony was such a boon to Trump’s defense that his lawyers asked the judge to issue an immediate decision in their favor. But Judge Arthur Engoron — who has often butted heads with Trump and his legal team, and who already found Trump’s business liable for fraud — did not appear convinced.

“I would point out that the mere fact that the lenders were happy doesn’t mean that the statute wasn’t violated, doesn’t mean that the other statutes weren’t violated,” he said, taking the request under advisement. Engoron, who is overseeing the trial with no jury, will alone decide the verdict.

▪ USA Today: Ruled a fraud but still fighting: What’s at stake in Trump’s New York civil trial.

▪ NBC News: Federal appeals court finds Trump not entitled to presidential immunity in Jan. 6 civil cases — for now.

▪ The Hill: Trump’s lead Georgia lawyer says trial would be stalled by 2024 election win.

EDUCATION

? SCHOOLS ARE FINDING creative ways to stop students from using their cell phones during the day, fueling debates about the effectiveness and wisdom of such bans. The Hill’s Lexi Lonas reports that while educators appear ecstatic about getting students off their phones during class, there are lingering concerns from both parents and children about being phone-less in emergency situations and if this is the best way to address the problem. But some experts say cell phone bans can help children with socio-emotional learning.

“What’s happening is that kids and teens are telling me that they’re not sitting with their feelings because if something happens in class, if a teacher looks at them wrong, where they get a bad grade, they say they have to go to the bathroom, and they go to the bathroom and they’re texting their mom,” said Roni Cohen-Sandler, a clinical psychologist and author of the book “Anything But My Phone, Mom!” “And so, they’re sort of dumping all of this on their moms and they’re not sitting with feelings themselves.”

SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS ARE ADJUSTING to a hotly debated overhaul of civics in several conservative states this school year. The revamp is led by Republican governors — DeSantis, Kristi Noem (S.D.) and Glenn Youngkin (Va.) — who have also restricted how race and gender are discussed in schools. The new civics standards are explicitly patriotic, and while they do not avoid discussions of race, they depict racism in a particular light, not as a structural feature of American life but as a deviation from the nation’s norms and ideals.

The guidelines also remove or reduce hands-on activities, such as mock elections, debates on current events and writing to elected officials — a reaction to worry from conservatives that teachers use these activities to push their own political beliefs (The New York Times).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: School vouchers are helping families already in private school, early data show. Critics say the program amounts to subsidies for better-off families, while supporters call it parent choice in action.

▪ The New York Times: In Florida’s hot political climate, some faculty have had enough. Liberal-leaning professors are leaving coveted jobs with tenure. And there are signs that recruiting scholars has become harder.

OPINION

■ Can Washington still do anything? by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Not merely the right woman, Sandra Day O’Connor was the right justice, by Ruth Marcus, associate opinion editor, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

And finally … The ranks of stay-at-home parents are perennially dominated by mothers. But as women make educational and economic strides, turning some of them into the bigger earners in their households, a growing number of dads are opting to care for their kids full-time.

The percentage of parents who do not work for pay has hovered at 18 percent for roughly the past 30 years, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. But the share of stay-at-home parents who are fathers has gone up, growing from 11 percent in 1989 to 18 percent in 2021. At the same time, women have been steadily outpacing men in educational attainment.

“Women’s earning potential has risen considerably over this time as their educational attainment has steadily increased,” Jocelyn Wikle, assistant professor at Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life, told The Hill. “These economic realities mean that for some families having a stay-at-home father and breadwinner mother is best.”

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