“The Senate is poised to approve the two-year budget deal on Tuesday, but the tally is not expected to match the landslide in the House,” The Hill writes. “The bill, which sets top-line spending levels for 2014 and 2015, is on track to just barely get the 60 votes it needs to clear the upper chamber.”
Roll Call looks at the actual power of influencing votes by outside groups and finds a lot of bluster.
Roll Call: “The House Ethics Committee will launch a formal investigation into alleged misconduct by Rep. Trey Radel, the panel’s top Republican and Democrat announced Monday.” More: “An Ethics Committee member, who spoke to CQ Roll Call last month on background because committee members are not permitted to comment on matters that could come before the panel, said the most likely outcome would be for the panel to concur with the court actions taken against Radel and offer no further repercussions.”
“The Senate on Monday confirmed Jeh Johnson to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security in a 78-16 vote,” The Hill writes. “Johnson will take the place of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who announced her retirement this fall.”
Roll Call: “Atop the priority list after legislative work on the big-ticket budget deal and defense authorization bill is President Barack Obama’s choice of Janet L. Yellen to be the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve.”
The Hill says Republicans will decide their filibuster strategy today. A deal “seems likely,” it says because no one wants to stay in town until Christmas Eve.
NBCLatino’s Sandra Lilley: “The government should limit deportations to those who have committed serious crimes and not those whose only violation is being in the country illegally, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview with Telemundo’s Lori Montenegro.”
Politico: “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke out against the Obama administration’s pace of deportations, adding pressure on a president already under fire from advocacy groups for the number of undocumented immigrants who have been removed under his tenure.”
National Journal says Congress probably actually worked more than you did this year.