House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke for more than 8 hours Wednesday on the House floor — the longest such speech on record.
Why it matters: She began speaking about Dreamers and DACA around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, just wrapping up a few minutes ago. She said she will not vote for the proposed budget deal to stave off a government shutdown unless it includes provisions on DACA.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy said that President Trump's suggested military parade isn't a good idea: "When you're the most powerful nation in all of human history, you don't have to show it off."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the press in a briefing on Wednesday that the President is "hopeful" for a deal on DACA with Congress.
Why it matters: Congress has until Thursday at midnight to finalize the latest proposed budget deal, or risk another government shutdown. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday morning that she would not support a deal that didn't include legislation to protect Dreamers, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they reached a deal on a two-year funding deal that excludes a DACA provision.
The bipartisan spending agreement unveiled in the Senate today would fund a host of important health care priorities. It includes money to combat the opioid crisis and would add a few more years onto the latest extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The impact: In addition to authorizing new health care spending, the budget deal would repeal one of the Affordable Care Act's most controversial efforts to control future spending — a panel known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board that was created to automatically cut Medicare payments if the program's spending grows too quickly.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that a deal had been reached to fund the government for 2 years, which includes raising military spending but excludes a DACA provision.
Why it matters: The budget lifts sequestration caps, increasing discretionary spending by $300 billion over two years. The deal extends CHIP for 10 years instead of two and includes disaster relief and opioid response funding.
Less than a week after winning Super Bowl LII, three Eagles players have announced they will not attend the traditional champions visit to the White House: Malcom Jenkins, Chris Long, and Torrey Smith.
Christopher Steele, the author of the controversial Trump-Russia dossier, reportedly wrote an additional document on Donald Trump and his links to Russia, according to a referral released Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The FBI declassified several of the redactions Tuesday after Chairman Chuck Grassley pushed for more transparency.
Why it matters: Last week's memo alleging FISA abuse by the FBI and Justice Department is just the first of many expected memos alleging politically motivated "wrongdoing" across various agencies. And this new referral could form the basis for those releases.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said today she will not support a potential bipartisan budget deal unless House Speaker Paul Ryan brings the DREAM Act to a vote. The deal "does nothing to advance bipartisan legislation to protect Dreamers" she said. "As members of Congress, we have a moral responsibility to act now."
Why it matters: Given the expected opposition by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, the budget plan can't pass without the support of House Democrats, and if it doesn't, the government will shut down tomorrow after midnight.
Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain, said she had a conversation with President Trump since his public and private attacks against her father over the summer. "I don't believe he would go there again ... I don't think at this point in his administration it would be beneficial to him in any way," she said during an interview with Politico's Anna Palmer.
"When the news came out that he was ... allegedly making physical mockeries of my father's war injuries, I was deeply hurt by it."
It seems increasingly likely that a debt-ceiling increase will be attached to a budget deal that Senate negotiators from both sides hope to announce as soon as today.
The big picture: This means DACA will likely be dealt with — or not — on its own terms and not used as a hostage in a government shutdown stare-down.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview on CNN Tuesday night that President Trump's attacks on the FBI are "everything Putin ever wanted."
Why it matters: An Axios/Survey Monkey poll found that after Trump's attacks on the FBI, a majority of Republicans are losing faith in the agency. Biden told Cuomo Trump is the first president "to make a full-throated...attack on the entirety of the FBI."
The House passed a short-term spending bill on Tuesday in a 245-182 vote to fund the government through March 23, staving off a potential government shutdown on Thursday night.
Why it matters: The real challenge, as we've seen, is in the Senate. And per NPR, the Senate "is likely to change the deal before passing it." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he's "optimistic...we'll be able to reach an agreement."
At the White House: Trump said earlier on Tuesday that he'd "love to see a shutdown" if Democrats can't get behind his immigration framework.
But, but, but: Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the press an hour later that Trump "isn't looking for" a shutdown, and that he wants a long-term deal.
