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{"id":3428,"date":"2024-12-09T14:43:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T14:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/defense-bill-nominee-meetings-and-judges-headline-crucial-december-hill-week\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T14:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T14:43:10","slug":"defense-bill-nominee-meetings-and-judges-headline-crucial-december-hill-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/defense-bill-nominee-meetings-and-judges-headline-crucial-december-hill-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense bill, nominee meetings and judges headline crucial December Hill week"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>While you\u2019re busy buying presents and running to the dry cleaners after yet another holiday party, Congress is racing toward the end of the year \u2014 and one of the final weeks in session of Joe Biden\u2019s presidency. <\/p>\n<p><b>Top of mind: <\/b>Getting a compromise version of the annual defense policy bill across the finish line. The House Rules Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/rules.house.gov\/media\/announcement\/meeting-announcement-december-9-2024\" target=\"_blank\">meets at 4 p.m.<\/a> in hopes of teeing up the measure (<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/billsthisweek\/20241209\/RCP_HR5009_xml%5B89%5D.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">all 1,800+ pages of it<\/a>) for floor consideration; if hard-line conservatives block that path, look for Speaker Mike Johnson to put it up under suspension, relying on Democratic votes for the must-pass measure. <\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no white smoke yet, but we\u2019ll also keep a close watch for progress on a short-term government spending patch. Current funding levels run out on Dec. 20, and there are always bipartisan wishes to get home for the holidays.<\/p>\n<p><b>Other things on the radar <\/b>as another week kicks off in Washington:<\/p>\n<p><b>Two new senators: <\/b>Democratic Sens.-elect <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/adam-schiff-senate-trump-california-1f611ee885e9c6b73a22ea1cab0d08bc\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Schiff (Calif.)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/12\/08\/new-jersey-andy-kim-senate-00193194\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Kim (N.J.)<\/a> will become the newest members of the chamber Monday. <\/p>\n<p><b>Judges, judges, judges: <\/b>The House Rules Committee will tee up floor consideration of a Senate-passed measure expanding the number of federal court judicial seats gradually over the next decade. Some progressives have urged the White House to oppose the bill now that President-elect Donald Trump will get to fill some of those posts, but Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) defended the bill last week. \u201cIt is really balanced and it&#8217;s implemented over a period of years,\u201d Durbin told reporters. \u201cSo there might be a political bias but it&#8217;s not built into it. It depends on how the voters decide to come up with the next president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Side note: <\/i>Democrats are closing in on 234 judges confirmed, the number that got through the Senate during Trump\u2019s first term. The current tally for Biden\u2019s presidency will hit 230 after senators confirm Tiffany Johnson to a Georgia federal district court slot on Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p><b>More nominee meetings<\/b>: More of Trump\u2019s Cabinet picks are expected on Blue Light News this week to meet with Republican senators, including embattled Defense Department pick Pete Hegseth and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, his pick to be director of national intelligence. On Hegseth, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), vowed over the weekend to conduct a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/12\/07\/ernst-hegseth-republican-defense-00193173\" target=\"_blank\">thorough vetting<\/a>\u201d of the pick and will hold another meeting with him. And Gabbard, who has drawn criticism for previously meeting with the newly ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, is being seen as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/12\/06\/hegseth-is-on-thin-ice-gabbard-could-be-next-00193038\" target=\"_blank\">the next Trump nominee likely to hit major turbulence<\/a> in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p><b>Who says Congress is gridlocked? <\/b>The House is about to take up a bill <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/GO\/GO00\/20241120\/117737\/BILLS-118-HR8753-C001108-Amdt-11.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">granting 39 communities<\/a> their own unique zip codes. Good news for you Scotland, Conn., Goose Creek, S.C. and Montz, La., among others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While you\u2019re busy buying presents and running to the dry cleaners after yet another holiday party, Congress is racing toward the end of the year \u2014 and one of the final weeks in session of Joe Biden\u2019s presidency. Top of mind: Getting a compromise version of the annual defense policy bill across the finish line. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}