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09/30/2016 07:59 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With assistance from Rachael Bade

LAME DUCK IS LOOKING REAL LAME- Congress has a lot it could get done when lawmakers return in mid-November but expectations aren't high, especially given how difficult it was to pass a 2.5-month government funding bill.

Republican leaders are at odds over passing criminal justice reform in the lame duck. House Speaker Paul Ryan doubled down Thursday on his commitment to the issue this year, but across the Capitol Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a much different take, Rachael reports. "'It's very divisive in my conference,' the majority leader from Kentucky said. ...Whether we can take something up that controversial in that limited amount of time available, I doubt.'"

Don't get your hopes up: It's not just criminal justice reform McConnell plans to sit on during the lame duck. Burgess with the full list: "The majority leader has no big plans to put new trade deals, criminal justice reform or Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland up for a vote, either in the lame duck or next year. All he would divulge about the Senate's immediate future was that he hoped to fund the government after the election in a series of bite-sized bills."

PUTTING IT ALL ON PENCE- Capitol Hill Republicans, many still very uneasy with a potential President Trump, are looking towards running mate Mike Pence as their saving grace. "Republicans believe Pence could be their man in the White House, a liaison they're hoping would bend the nominee toward the conservative agenda they're hoping for - and make the pride-swallowing they've done to back a man who spent the primary belittling them worth it after all," Burgess and Matthew Nussbaum write for the hometown team.

Exhibit A: This anecdote from the story- "John McCain pointed to the door of Senate subway train, telling a reporter recently to get out 'if you're going to ask about Trump.' Informed instead the subject was Mike Pence, McCain relaxed, as the Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee invited the reporter to ride along. McCain's willingness to talk Pence but dodge on Trump is shared broadly among his fellow Capitol Hill Republicans."

RYAN: LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS UNLIKELY TO BE DELAYED- A day after Rachael reported the House Freedom Caucus was considering a request to Paul Ryan to postpone leadership elections until after the lame duck session, the speaker waved off the matter when asked about the possibility at his Thursday presser. "I've never received that request," he said (The Freedom Caucus hasn't sent the letter yet). "We'll keep planning on doing things the way we've always done them when we come back from the elections."

An hour or so later, this note from a Freedom Caucus source hit our inbox: "It's important to point out the double standard here: Rank and file members won't be handed out their committee assignments until after leadership sees how they vote on their top legislative priorities in lame duck," the source wrote.

"Leadership has historically used lame duck to twist members' arms into supporting unpopular bills with the promise of good committee posts next Congress. There's absolutely no reason rank and file members shouldn't also get to see how their leadership votes on big items before determining who they'll support for the next Congress."

SHIMON PERES FUNERAL TODAY- President Obama, former President Bill Clinton and several members of Congress were in Israel today to pay tribute to Peres at the Israeli leader's funeral. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Jan Schakowsky were spotted exiting Air Force One behind the president.

Obama delivered a "heartfelt eulogy," according to the AP, describing "the unlikely friendship he forged with Peres given their vastly different backgrounds. 'It was so surprising to see the two of us, where we had started, talking together in the White House, meeting here in Israel,' he said. 'I think both of us understood that we were here only because in some way we reflected the magnificent story of our nations.'"

Other members who were attending, according to the White House: Reps. Charlie Rangel, Sandy Levin, Eliot Engel, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jerry Nadler, Kay Granger, Susan Davis, Steve Israel, Adam Schiff, Steve Cohen, Ted Deutch, David Cicilline, Suzanne Bonamici, Alan Lowenthal and Lee Zeldin.

IT'S FRIDAY. IT'S REALLY FRIDAY. Welcome to Sept. 30. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill.

TODAY IN CONGRESS- Nada.


AROUND THE HILL- A quiet, rainy day with staffers sporting blue jeans and toting pumpkin spice lattes.

'KNIFE FIGHT IN A PHONE BOOTH'- Capitol Hill leaders stuck around Thursday morning to hold individual press conferences where they were asked about-wait for it-the election. McConnell wouldn't talk Trump (Burgess has the full story on that), but the majority leader "pointed to seven races that are going down to the wire, mostly across Midwest. 'Knock-down drag-out, sort of like a knife fight in a phone booth,' McConnell told reporters," Paul Kane reports for the Washington Post.

"Across the Capitol, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.) acknowledged that his side would lose ground from its current 247-member caucus, the largest Republican majority since 1930."

They're not alone: House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters while he expects significant gains, he's not seeing signs of a Democratic wave taking back the House-at least not yet. "It is not beyond the realm of possibility that we take back the House if there's a wave election created. Right now, we don't see that," he said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's response? With 40 days until the election, it's still too early to tell, she told reporters. "It's like saying, 'Do you see a wave?' We're not even at the beach." More from your Huddle host: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9839fdd7a95b995ea02432042a9593af3118be5daf8ee148469e326523bbc02b

HITCHING A RIDE ON PORTMAN'S COATTAILS- Donald Trump probably doesn't like to be told he's riding anybody's coattails but if the GOP nominee ends up winning Ohio, he has Sen. Rob Portman to thank. "Mr. Trump's campaign only recently started organizing voters here-months after Democratic rival Hillary Clinton-while Mr. Portman has for nearly two years been identifying and courting GOP voters in anticipation of tough re-election race," Reid Epstein writes for the Wall Street Journal.

Trump gets schooled: "In typical presidential years, the White House nominee drives party turnout for down-ticket candidates. Here, the Portman campaign, which began recruiting volunteers in high school government classes across the state in March 2015, is the primary point of contact for GOP voters. 'In Ohio, everyone is riding Rob Portman's coattails,' said Donald Larson, a Republican who is challenging Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur."

DON'T MISS- The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer has a cheeky summary of just what Congress got accomplished in its September session (the short answer: not a whole lot worth bragging about). And the road ahead: "Now Republicans can spend the next 40 days pretending that they don't know much about that guy Trump as they try mightily to hold on to the Senate, regardless of the outcome of the presidential race."

"Mr. McConnell, as is his wont, refused to speak about Mr. Trump on Thursday because, as he helpfully noted, 'I choose not to.' Mr. Ryan was kind enough to note that he hoped Mr. Trump prevailed."

FIX FOR 9/11 BILL IN THE WORKS? Just one day after Congress overwhelmingly voted to override a veto of the 9/11 victims bill, Republican leaders said they're open to addressing some of the White House's concerns with the legislation, which allows families impacted by the terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) both said they were open to discussions about changing the bill, which Congress approved unanimously," Jordain Carney reports for the Hill.

'Worth further discussions': "'I do think it's worth further discussions, but it was certainly not something that was going to be fixed this week,' McConnell told reporters on Thursday. ...Ryan agreed that Congress may need to 'fix' the legislation but said he wasn't sure when that would happen."

Not so fast, says the White House: "It's hard to take at face value the suggestion that they were unaware of the consequences of their vote, but even if they were, what's true in elementary school is true in the United States Congress: Ignorance is not an excuse," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. More from Brent Griffiths: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9839fdd7a95b995ed4407ef9ebe1e359b55e91d2f308d7682c743413ca1c9549

HOUSE LAWMAKERS HAMMER WELLS FARGO CEO-- "Angry lawmakers heaped another round of blistering criticism on Wells Fargo's CEO, pressing Thursday for details about what senior managers knew about allegedly illegal sales practices and when any concerns were disclosed," reports Marcy Gordon and Ken Sweet for the AP.

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Ryan McDevitt was the first to correctly guess that Rep. Albert Burleson was the member to use the motion to vacate in an effort to oust then-Speaker Joseph Cannon in 1910.

TODAY'S TRIVIA- I'll take today's question: Which House lawmaker has this cardboard cutout hanging around outside his/her office? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in Monday's Huddle. Get at me: hcaygle@politico.com

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