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12/18/2015 06:27 AM EDT


By Lauren French (@laurennfrench & lfrench@politico.com).

IT WAS A LATE NIGHT OF WHIPPING. The House is set to vote this morning on a $1.1 trillion spending bill. At least that's the plan. Sources last night said the Democratic count was looking better after Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent her colleagues a letter urging them to support the spending package. It also helped that the White House had dispatched top lieutenants - Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack - to speak with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the ringleaders of the rebellion against the omnibus. On their end, Republicans worked throughout the day
to encourage GOP lawmakers to support the bill after sensing that the Democratic count might not be as high as originally thought.

The House vote is planned at 9:15 a.m. If the House goes into a recess after gaveling in for the morning, it is a sign of trouble. But if the House does manage to pass a spending bill, the package then goes to the Senate, which could begin debating the bill as soon as they receive notice. More from Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and your Huddle author on the whip operation: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e358ae7a73b9983a0f1914f89e511aa7d01787c9982dfc909f

MCCONNELL THWARTS POSSIBLE DELAY FROM CRUZ AND RUBIO. "Senators have been wondering all week about the massive tax-and-spending bill - not so much whether it would pass, but whether Ted Cruz would keep them in town into Christmas week with stall tactics he's used before. Or even if Marco Rubio might try to slow it down, after floating the idea on Thursday morning. But on Thursday afternoon, as Cruz and Rubio were out on the campaign trail railing against Congress' massive tax and spending deal, GOP leaders were moving swiftly to evade conservative opposition to the bill. Around 1 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) strode to the floor to lock in a voting agreement for
Friday that will give dissenters little time to speak and no way to stall the package absent a full-scale rebellion against McConnell." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3874ee0813d1f671b2d25fae9959f197629af998f4747fab6

TAX BILL PASSES. From Reuters, "A massive bill that extends billions of dollars in tax assistance to businesses and expands the budget deficit won U.S. House of Representatives approval on Thursday in the closest thing to a grand bipartisan tax bargain in years. Lawmakers voted 318-109 for the $622 billion measure, which has been linked procedurally to year-end federal spending legislation needed to avoid a government shutdown. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it will likely be voted on together with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that must be approved to avert a repeat of a government shutdown in 2013 that damaged the U.S. economy." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3a4b00333f3946bd7b225391f0a4253ef1e0a1819df963d12

REID: DEMOCRATS MIGHT BE TO BLAME FOR GUN CONTROL LOSES. Erica Werner with the AP writes, "Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Thursday his party has tried everything to get gun control legislation through Congress and still keeps losing to the National Rifle Association. Reid said Democrats themselves may be to blame - or maybe voters are gullible, even after multiple mass shootings. The comments from the Nevada Democrat in an interview with The Associated Press reflect frustrations in his caucus, where some lawmakers are deeply perturbed over congressional inaction on guns. Several attempts by Democrats to force votes on the issue this month failed to garner even a Senate majority in
favor of background checks or keeping suspected terrorists from buying guns." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3e7812c8bf27e015b010db1a74742cb7fb184be1acd955063

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Speaker Paul Ryan will be joining "Meet the Press" for a Sunday exclusive, says a Huddle tipster.

WELCOME, it is December 18, 2015. Thanks for getting up early with me this week. Burgess Everett is on tap next week. Have a lovely holiday season and I'll see you back here in 2016. Merry Christmas. And yes, you can still send compliments and complaints to lfrench@politico.com and @laurennfrench on Twitter. Or to Burgess at beverett@politico.com. Better send them to him, really.

TODAY IN CONGRESS: The House is scheduled to gavel in at 9 a.m. with a vote - on the government spending bill - set for around 9:15 a.m. The Senate's scheduled depends on when the House passes the omnibus.

ON THE HILL: House members eagerly checking the departure boards at National and Dulles to find the earliest flight home after the government spending bill passes.

ON THE IMMIGRATION BATTLE, WHO IS RIGHT? Seung Min Kim breaks it down, "Cruz finds himself in a bind, trying to convince voters that Marco Rubio is full of baloney as he accuses the Texas senator of flip-flopping on the legalization of undocumented immigrants, using that 2013 amendment as the damning piece of evidence. Meanwhile, Cruz says his amendment was a "poison pill" designed to doom the Gang of Eight reform package that Rubio co-authored. So who's actually correct? There are two big points to unpack. First is whether Cruz's amendment was indeed a "poison pill" meant to kill the immigration bill, which the Texas senator's campaign now contends. That is unequivocally true, so point
goes to Cruz. Second is whether Cruz's amendment signaled his true policy beliefs at the time. That's significantly murkier and ultimately, may never be knowable." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3302870fccae638046d5a3fa2058943acf0264ffaaf90dc2d

EVERYONE HATES TED CRUZ....AND HOW THAT'S A WIN FOR 2016. Jennifer Steinhauer for the New York Times, "Since his arrival in 2013, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has managed to alienate, exasperate and generally agitate the plurality of his 99 colleagues in the Senate. In a highly partisan, hypercompetitive legislative body where solipsism is nearly a creed, Mr. Cruz stands out for his widely held reputation for putting Ted first... Mr. Cruz is so unpopular that at one point not a single Republican senator would support his demand for a roll-call vote, known as a sufficient second, leaving Mr. Cruz standing on the Senate floor like a man with bird flu, everyone scattering to avoid
him. In his presidential campaign, Mr. Cruz uses his role as an outsider as a source of strength." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3741b3354c6d2337d65eb8b3fb878e4f8133d314dbfad43e0

HISPANIC LEADERS ALL IN FOR GREEN. Abby Livingston for the Texas Tribune, "A top operative for U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, is headed for U.S. Rep. Gene Green's re-election campaign. Jose Borjon, an adviser to Vela, is taking an unpaid leave of absence from his Capitol Hill job and is en route to Texas to work as a spokesman for Green's already-heated Democratic primary race against former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia. The move is a clear indicator that Green has backing from at least one Hispanic in the Texas delegation. This is crucial because Green represents a predominantly Hispanic district in Houston, and his challenger - until recently, Green's longtime friend - is
making race a central issue in the campaign." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e349eb2acd4a04b835028cbd6aa4ead5d54f80ca39f792f518

SHELBY A NO ON A BILL OF GOODIES FOR ALABAMA. John Bresnahan has the story, "Sen. Richard Shelby loaded up the $1.1 trillion spending bill with pet provisions, including one measure worth hundreds of millions to a rocket manufacturer with operations in his home state. The cagey lawmaker also fought hard for language protecting red snapper fisheries on Alabama's Gulf Coast, even issuing a news release bragging about his efforts... But in an only-in-Congress twist, Shelby, a very senior member on the Appropriations Committee, still plans to vote against the sprawling omnibus package. He's citing the lack of language to restrict Syrian refugees as the reason."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4258cdf2e2d207e3ec23da0c9d29d516901022966303afef0bf9c2b51def3bfb

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER: Sara Bonjean was the first to answer that Rep. Preston Brooks attacked Sen. Charles Sumner after the senator made fun of Brooks cousin's, Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina, speaking abilities during a speech on slavery and Kansas' admittance into the Union.

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Sara has today's question. When the great state of Wyoming was first established, it had five counties. What were those counties and which of them laid claim to the status of "Mother County"? The first one to email the correct answers to lfrench@politico.com gets a mention in Monday's Huddle.

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