Happy Friday! All I want for Christmas is for Congress to figure out a funding plan so everyone can relax. Is that too much to ask!? Here’s the latest:

• House Republicans are meeting right now to discuss the latest plan.
• That plan: Split the spending proposal into 3 standalone votes.
• Senate Republicans are calling this funding saga a “s--- show.”
• Democrats pledge to work through Christmas to rebuff Trump’s demands.
• Democrats are trying to irk Trump with “President Elon Musk” comments.

I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.  

©  The Hill, Greg Nash

Lawmakers have less than 12 hours to come to an agreement to avert a government shutdown.

What’s happening now?: House Republicans are meeting right now (12:30 p.m.) to discuss the new plan.

The latest plan, per Emily Brooks and Mychael Schnell’s reporting: Republicans will break up elements of the government funding plan into separate, stand-alone votes. The a la carte votes would include:

• A vote to fund the government at its current levels
• A vote on disaster aid
• A vote to give economic assistance to farmers

What’s notably missing from this plan: It would not include a vote to increase the debt ceiling, a source told The Hill. (Trump wanted that to be included, btw.) This plan also wouldn’t include most of the proposals that were added onto the negotiated bipartisan plan from earlier this week.

🗨️ Follow our live blog to see how today shakes out

Democrats have pledged to work through Christmas: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said this morning she is willing to stay in Washington “through Christmas” to fight President-elect Trump’s demand to scrap the negotiated add-ons that were agreed upon in the bipartisan funding plan.

Read Alexander Bolton’s reporting: ‘Democrats pledge to work through Christmas on funding to rebuff Trump’s demands’

What are the vibes?: CNN’s Sarah Ferris says members are “getting angrier by the hour and want to leave.” I feel that.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told The Hill’s Mike Lillis this morning that he has a plan. 📹 Watch Lillis chat with Johnson as he entered the Capitol

This is a good point: Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis pointed out: “A reminder that pretty much every major spending negotiation in Congress always starts with NO NO NO NO NO and always ends with YES - eventually.”

Trump just added some fuel to the fire: President-elect Trump argued if there has to be a shutdown, it should happen now while President Biden is still in office. “If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP,’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”

How plan B spectacularly failed: Johnson unveiled a pared-back plan on Thursday afternoon to fund the government, and Trump backed it. The House voted on it shortly after, but it failed to pass. Thiry-eight Republicans bucked Johnson and Trump. The 38 Republicans who voted ‘no’

How are Senate Republicans feeling?: They are fuming over what they called a dysfunctional  “s--- show” and “fiasco” this week as the House blew through two failed funding plans. Read Alexander Bolton’s reporting on the Senate GOP’s anger

Related, via The Wall Street Journal: ‘How Mike Johnson’s Misfires Ignited Republican Rebellion’

Nothing shocks me anymore: Wanna see Paris Hilton riding what appears to be a pink electric suitcase in front of the U.S. Capitol? 📹 Watch the clip

It’s the all-caps ‘AS U WLD EXPECT’ for me: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) posted a photo of his lunch on X. “As Congress grapples with end of yr business I’m bringing a smile to the Senate GOP caucus over lunch w a pork chop & ice cream AS U WLD EXPECT,” he wrote. 📸 Grassley posing with his lunch

I think everyone needs to go home now: Politico’s Olivia Beavers posted that she’s “pretty sure [she] watched a House member go up to a hand sanitizer station, get a pump and then rub it over his face.” She added that “still, not the weirdest thing I’ve seen up here.”

Overheard outside the Longworth House Office Building: “Oh yeah, me and like most staff I know write all our bills with ChatGPT.” (Posted by @OverheardWDC)

Ooh, a Bluesky statement: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent out a statement, referencing his Bluesky post. Bluesky is a competitor to X, formerly known as Twitter. 📸 Screenshot of the post

©  AP

Democrats are trying to get under President-elect Trump’s skin by pointing out tech billionaire and close Trump ally Elon Musk’s magnified role in the Trump transition.

What sparked this?: Musk was instrumental in tanking the negotiated bipartisan government funding bill that fell apart earlier this week. He fired off several social media posts urging Republicans to vote against the package. Trump then echoed Musk’s opposition. Within 20 hours, the bill crumbled.  

Have Republicans acknowledged the swipes?: Trump’s transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt shared a statement with The Hill, calling Trump the “leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.” 

He has spread a flood of misinformation in some of his social media posts. For example:

• Musk claimed the plan would include a “40% pay increase” for Congress. That’s not true. It’s roughly a 3.8 percent raise.
  
  
• Musk claimed the bill would prevent any investigation into the House’s Jan. 6 panel. That’s also not true.
  
  
• Musk claimed it would fund bioweapons labs. The bill includes funds for biocontainment labs, not bioweapons labs.
  
  
• Musk reposted a claim that the bill would fund the new D.C. football stadium. That’s not true. The bill just transferred control of the site to the D.C. local government. There was no funding involved.

Read more: Here’s a longer explanation for why each of these claims is false

From Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.): “This is a leadership challenge that Mike Johnson has to define himself with. Are you going to get the right input from the right people to get this bill passed?” he asked on CNN. “Because, quite frankly, you can’t do it in a vacuum. And it doesn’t matter because, quite frankly, last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress.”

From Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.): “Elon Musk has Donald Trump in a vise,” Goldman told MSNBC on Thursday. “And it is very clear that Elon Musk is now calling the shots.”

From Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.): “I was with a few Republicans yesterday as Musk was rage-tweeting and giving his orders, and they were completely apoplectic,” Swalwell told MSNBC. “And I told one of them, I said, ‘If you let him do this, if he does this and you don’t stand up to him now, he is going to own you for the next Congress.'”

• The Washington Post: Musk’s swift accumulation of political power sparks alarm
• The Atlantic: The GOP Is Treating Musk Like He’s in Charge
• The Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk Shook Up U.S. Politics. Will the U.K. Be Next?

©  GIPHY/Netflix

President Biden announced that he is canceling student loan debt for 55,000 public service workers.

For context: This brings the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness total to $180 billion for 5 million borrowers.

Read more, via The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran: ‘Biden canceling student loan debt for 55K public service workers’

• The New York Times: Trump Is Threatening Europe With Tariffs. Is It Ready?
• Vox: How Democrats should — and shouldn’t — moderate on immigration
• The New York Times: Inside Disney’s Decision to Settle a Trump Defamation Suit
• The Wall Street Journal: Starbucks Baristas Walk Out and Picket in Three Cities in Bid for Contract
• Time: Why People Believe Trump and RFK Jr.’s Dangerous and Debunked Claims about Vaccines and Autism

🍷 Celebrate: Today is National Sangria Day!

❄️ What’s the holiday weather situation?: The New York Times runs through the potential weather snarls around the U.S. next week. And Nexstar’s Alix Martichoux explains a map of what areas may see a white Christmas.

🏈 Play ball!: Who is excited for the College Football Playoff this weekend? USA Today has a breakdown of the new mini-tournament of playoff games.

The House and Senate are still in. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in Washington. (all times Eastern)

• 12:15 p.m.: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. 💻 Livestream
• 2:10 p.m.: Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit patients and families at Children’s National Hospital in Washington. 💻 Livestream

To get this weekend off to a festive start, let this duck entertain you with some Christmas carols.

Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@thehill.com. A friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.

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