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12/04/2017 07:57 AM EDT


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

CONGRESS FACES FRIDAY FUNDING DEADLINE - Congress has until Friday to pass a bill to keep the government open. While congressional leaders are still far apart on a long-term deal - including whether to include a legislative fix for Dreamers or not - the current plan is to pass a two-week stopgap to give negotiators until Dec. 22 to reach an agreement. "There's not going to be a government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on ABC Sunday. "It's just not going to happen."

On Dreamers: Democrats and a growing group of moderate Republicans want to see a legislative agreement addressing Dreamers by the end of the year. But GOP leaders are maintaining that they have until March to shield Dreamers from deportation and don't plan to turn to the contentious issue until early next year. Remember, Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass a funding bill.

Taxes: Republican leaders are working quickly to shore up support within their ranks after the Senate passed its tax bill early Saturday morning with only one GOP senator - Bob Corker from Tennessee - voting against the plan. McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will formally name conferees for the House-Senate tax talks this week, with GOP leaders pushing to send a bill to the president this month, before the winner of Alabama's special Senate election is seated. Brian Faler with what's next for taxes: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173ac9671b0bc6e8aed4497b074cdceb7737d3ac248ac2d6f9f56f45c1b24084763cb237ca8efd407862

FBI Director on the Hill: FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Trump launched a multi-tweet attack against the FBI on Twitter Sunday, just days after his former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the bureau and announced he was cooperating in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Sexual harassment allegations roil Capitol Hill: Democratic Reps. John Conyers (Mich.) and Ruben Kihuen (Nev.) are both facing calls from party leaders to resign after being accused of sexual harassing former aides. Speaker Ryan, meanwhile, is not going to call on Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) to resign after POLITICO reported Friday that Farenthold used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim in 2014. Ryan has said Conyers should resign. The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on the Hill's sexual harassment policies on Thursday. Bres and Rachael with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173aedfe37f16692ef44651935d00b373c63b3cfbaa46dd770f999773a5faf10bed5250bb10cdf8f948b

Guns: The House will vote this week on a bill to expand concealed carry gun permits, a top priority for the National Rifle Association. The bill, which allows concealed carry permit holders to take their weapons into other states that allow such permits, will be paired with a proposal to strengthen the national background checks system. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords' gun control group is going up with ads against eight Republicans ahead of this week's vote, Edward-Isaac Dovere reports.

Get smart fast: Bres has details on everything you need to know to start off the week. Read more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a23a951943b1fede1a258665dd0cb5457e6711596691d472997bf14424ffb630d8d074fd9cbd925a9

BACK TO MONDAY Y'ALL. Welcome to Dec. 4 and thanks for reading Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. In case you missed it, it was announced over the weekend that the greatest football team of all time will play for the college championship this year. Roll Tide Roll!

THE PLAYBOOK POWER LIST: 18 TO WATCH IN 2018: The final Playbook Power List of the year highlights 18 politicians, activists and operatives across the country who are poised to make waves in 2018. From the anti-Trump "Resistance" on the left to the far right Bannonite wing trying to remake the GOP, keep an eye on these people over the next 12 months. Click HERE to find out who made the list.

FRIDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Rep. Joe Barton's interview with the Dallas Morning News, announcing he wouldn't run for reelection after a nude selfie he sent to a girlfriend became public, was the winner.

TRUMP TRIES TO BLOCK ROMNEY - President Trump "is going all out to persuade seven-term Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to seek reelection - a push aimed in no small part at keeping the president's longtime nemesis, Mitt Romney, out of the Senate," Alex Isenstadt reports. "Romney has been preparing to run for Hatch's seat on the long-held assumption that the 83-year-old would retire. Yet Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is now refusing to rule out another campaign ... [and] Trump has sounded off to friends about how he doesn't like the idea of a Senator Romney." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a58977a1a0c8a526d79e7fab9ae817fecb10f5680dfefe68edcd4d30f1de2fa552a90aa07e78991d4

Trump will be in Utah today with Hatch to meet with Mormon leaders and announce plans to reduce two national monuments in the state. Hatch is slated to ride on Air Force One with the president both ways. Reducing the two monuments, Bear's Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante, has been a top priority for Hatch. "In the West Wing and Interior, the new push became known as the 'Hatch E.O.,' short for the Hatch executive order. Trump at one point referred to it as 'Orrin's monument thing,'" Thomas Burr reports for the Salt Lake Tribune. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a471185230042af83a2b1ba8c7dfb4710281ad9979ce0a934860153a77dca59f608f2c968e9a3faa8

RALLY FOR CONYERS TODAY - Political, religious and civil rights leaders will hold a rally in Detroit today in support of Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Free Press reports. Congressional leaders have called on Conyers to resign amid accusations he harassed multiple former female staffers. While the longtime Michigan Democrat was said to be negotiating his resignation date Friday - in an effort to receive one more paycheck, sources told Huddle - his lawyer slammed one of his accusers as an "opportunist." Meanwhile, Lisa Bloom, the lawyer representing the first Conyers accuser, told TMZ on Sunday that she has other former staffers who have contacted her and offered to testify at a House Ethics
Committee hearing about Conyers' alleged harassment.

McCONNELL CHANGES TONE ON ALABAMA RACE - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shifted his tone after initially saying Roy Moore should step down, now saying he'll "let the people of Alabama decide" whether to elect the man accused of sexually pursuing teenagers. "I'm going to let the people of Alabama make the call," McConnell said on ABC Sunday, Kevin Robillard reports. Moore has refused to take any questions from credible national or local outlets since the initial accusations were reported Nov. 9, refuses press questions at campaign events and won't debate his Democratic opponent, NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard points out. President Trump endorsed Roy Moore in a tweet this morning.

Quote du jour: "I don't think the Lord Jesus could win as a Democrat in Alabama," said Brad Chism, who runs a Democratic communications firm in Mississippi that surveyed female voters in Alabama in recent weeks. More from the New York Times' Alan Blinder, Campbell Robertson and Jess Bidgood: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a22ca95c8553412f5de326b08fac8842bcc8dc71dd844620ba56940e97026dd6e576bfab30840dfe9


** A message from RetireSafe: When Medicare patients pickup their medicines at the pharmacy, the cost at the register is often higher than the drug's actual price. That's because deep manufacturer-negotiated discounts and rebates end up in the pockets of the middlemen instead of patients. Help fix this problem. Support CMS' new proposed rule. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a8f014b2d411b5be7b6858f2ea3044336f6cf614caedeae522611ab42b575866c463a4b43753ceb65 **

KIHUEN DIGS IN - Nevada freshman Rep. Ruben Kihuen has no plans to resign despite calls from top Democrats to do so after allegations he sexually harassed a campaign staffer last year. "Kihuen spoke with [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi late Friday evening about allegations that he propositioned a campaign aide for sex and touched her thighs without consent," Michael Scott Davidson and Gary Martin report for the Las-Vegas Review Journal. "After speaking with Pelosi, Kihuen decided early Saturday that 'he's not going to resign,' said a Democratic operative familiar with the congressman's decision." BuzzFeed's Kate Nocera and Tarini Parti first reported the accusations against Kihuen on
Friday.

THE ATTACK AD THAT WRITES ITSELF - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had an interesting explanation this weekend for why Republicans are planning to significantly reduce or repeal the estate tax, which primarily affects wealthy Americans: "I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing," Grassley told the Des Moines Register, "as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a5f7cb9ab9af09864689baa3dae250dc1cc17f70fbb68aa7e344e8aeb117212f4ac7b8a4328663e6e

IS MUELLER EYEING OBSTRUCTION? Democrats investigating Russian interference think special counsel Robert Mueller is building an obstruction-of-justice case that could implicate Trump. "What we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday on NBC. Feinstein "said Michael Flynn's guilty plea, a separate guilty plea by a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser and the indictment of Trump's former campaign chairman all appeared geared toward an obstruction inquiry." Kyle with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a59bfbe1ca1fc886f7d325720629e35cfa9d27f4a6985e3e099f48c2a6146785960aa383cf4bbf373

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has agreed to let the House Intelligence Committee interview the FBI employee believed to have worked as the main negotiator with Christopher Steele, the author of the Trump dossier, after a month-long negotiation. House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had threatened contempt charges against DOJ and FBI officials if they didn't comply with subpoena demands related to the dossier. CNN's Laura Jarrett with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173aa2ef8ae159c355896237bcf4d4fc5102faa30566d130c67411a0d9707b06347f3702087dba896975

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate gavels in at 3 p.m. with a 5:30 p.m. procedural vote on Homeland Security Secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen. The House gavels in at 6 p.m. with a vote on the motion to go to conference on the tax bill at 6:30 p.m. Additional votes are possible at 8 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) will participate in a day-long rally for Dreamers in the House triangle. The rally kicks off at 10 a.m. with Kaine scheduled to appear around 3 p.m. and Booker at 4 p.m.

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Nancy Lewis was the first to guess that Aaron Burr was the former vice president accused and acquitted of treason for his plan to take possession of some Spanish territories in North America. Ohio Sen. John Smith resigned from the Senate after a failed expulsion vote for alleged conspiring with Burr. Francis Scott Key was Smith's counsel in the expulsion trial while John Quincy Adams led the Senate inquiry.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - This senator, the son of a former president, was a staunch non-interventionist who sponsored an unsuccessful resolution to urge this global body to prohibit certain weapons. Who is this senator and what is the global organization? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: hcaygle@politico.com.

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** A message from RetireSafe: When Medicare patients pickup their medicines at the pharmacy, the cost at the register is often higher than the drug's actual price. That's because deep manufacturer-negotiated discounts and rebates end up in the pockets of the middlemen and not the patients. CMS' new proposed rule for Medicare Part D is trying to fix this problem. Help Medicare patients pay less for their medicines and support the proposed rule. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4c1bfc44ebc6173a8f014b2d411b5be7b6858f2ea3044336f6cf614caedeae522611ab42b575866c463a4b43753ceb65 **

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