•A homeless man has been charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to the 50-foot “All-American Christmas Tree” at Fox News’ New York City headquarters early Wednesday, Politico says.
•After 16 years leading Germany, Angela Merkel has handed over control of the nation’s parliament to Olaf Scholz, who leads a three-party coalition.
•Pfizer says its two-shot vaccination appears to be less effective against the omicron variant of COVID-19, based on studies by South African scientists and Pfizer, but a third shot may be more effective (WaPo). Meanwhile, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, says the omicron variant may spread more quickly but is likely less severe.
•Instagram chief Adam Mosseri faces the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer protection panel today over possible harm to teens from its photo-sharing social media app (NPR).
Convoluted Procedures Look to Avoid Federal Shutdown – Congress is on its way to a debt-limit increase over the current $28.9 trillion, to an amount to be determined later, presumably after a confusing set of procedures moves the legislation on to the Senate Thursday. This is from reports in The Hill as well as Roll Call. The procedural trick is that the Senate will be limited to 10 hours debate on raising the debt limit, thus allowing Democrats to pass the increase with a simple majority vote.
Congress has until December 15, one week from today, to raise the debt limit in order to avoid a government shutdown, based on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin’s estimates.
Republicans, remember, are resistant to taking on additional federal debt (see the next item on the 2022 defense bill, which will reach the Senate $25 billion higher than President Biden’s budget request). Under this compromise on the debt limit, 10 Republican senators will help advance a bill that blocks Medicare cuts.
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House Passes Defense Bill – The House passed a compromise version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday with a price tag of $768.1 billion, $25 billion more than President Biden had proposed, according to The Hill. As a result, 51 Democrats joined 19 Republicans in voting against the bill, with 363 House members from both parties voting in favor. The defense bill, which is expected to head to the Senate next week, includes a $740 billion base budget, $27.8 billion for nuclear weaponry and $368 million for defense-related spending in other federal departments.
Note: Now go home for the holidays. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) does not want to take up Build Back Better legislation until next year, so there’s no reason for Democrats to insist on lingering around the Capitol until the Senate takes it up again.
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Biden in Video Faceoff with Putin – President Biden spent more than two hours in a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday, warning him of economic and political sanctions if his military’s troops continue to move aggressively on Ukraine. Putin says the Russian troops are assembling on his country’s own land, and he wants to prevent NATO from moving east and recruiting Ukraine as a member. Some experts doubt Putin is being so obvious as to signal moves to repeat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.
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As the Insurrection Turns – Latest on the House select committee’s investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection is that Roger Stone, former political consultant to Donald J. Trump, plans to plead the 5th Amendment in his testimony, while fellow former Trump associate Stephen K. Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial is set for July.
Prosecutors had proposed “swift justice” in the form of a one-day trial in April for Bannon’s two contempt charges. Bannon’s defense attorneys countered by asking for a 10-day trial in October, just in time for the provocateur to rally pro-Trump voters for the November mid-terms.
Note: Bannon’s antics and Stone’s unusual choice not to talk about himself may be moot. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), as one of nine Congress members on the committee, says the panel has amassed a lot of useful written material to move forward (per MSNBC’s The Eleventh Hour).
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics