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12/05/2016 07:57 AM EDT


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

With assists from Burgess Everett, Seung Min Kim, Annie Snider and Daniel Lippman

SPRINT TO THE FINISH LINE- Happy Monday Huddle readers and welcome to what could be the last week of legislative action in the 114th Congress. Lawmakers are working to wrap up work on a government spending bill (the current one expires Dec. 9) and a water infrastructure package that is supposed to include funding for the Flint water crisis. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday she was told text for the short-term spending bill could come as early as today. And House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in announcing this week's floor schedule, said he hopes the House wraps up work by Thursday. The Senate won't be far behind.

NEW THIS MORNING: CARSON TAPPED FOR HUD- President-elect Donald Trump has tapped one-time rival Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has little experience in housing or management, report Lorraine Woellert and Louis Nelson. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d976bb8d743e90caa32dcffe0fec847ddcf48a5a372f15eddfd

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND- After watching Republicans sit on their hands and refuse to consider Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination this year, Democrats are taking a page out of the GOP playbook when it comes to Trump's nominees. Democrats are planning to put Trump's Cabinet picks "through a grinding confirmation process, weighing delay tactics that could eat up weeks of the Senate calendar and hamper his first 100 days in office," Burgess and Elana report this morning.

But Democrats say it goes beyond just exacting revenge for Garland. They argue that "some of the president-elect's more controversial Cabinet picks - such as Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary - demand a thorough public airing. ... Democrats can't block Trump's appointments, which in all but one case need only 51 votes for confirmation. But they can turn the confirmation process into a slog," they report.

"'They've been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We're going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified?' fumed Sen. Sherrod Brown." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97032b4d3f29ca941f53bd107c306a4e8d4163790349cd9ae4

Related: Democrats could block Mattis nomination, from Burgess and Austin: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d975a19ace12561b78612d75142f21c89748b662e11efc54ea6

RYAN PUSHES AHEAD ON MEDICARE- House Speaker Paul Ryan doubled down on his desire to overhaul Medicare during a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday, something Trump once called a "death wish" for the GOP, Rachael reports. "'The trust fund runs out of money, so we have to make sure that we shore this program up,' said Ryan, who admitted he has not spoken to Trump about his plans." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d9726e58d7320e370e3523315bcdd2c63c3b3af98b82f38dea3

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has already started hammering Republicans on the issue, calling Ryan's idea a plan "to voucherize Medicare" and vowing staunch opposition from Democrats. "Seniors have a lot to lose in what the Republicans are proposing. It's interesting to see if president Trump will go along with that," she said on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday.

THANKS FOR JOINING US ON MONDAY, DEC. 5. Welcome to POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill.


** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) drives up health care costs for small businesses, seniors, state Medicaid programs and middle-income Americans. The consequences are real. We need to repeal the HIT before it hurts small businesses and hardworking American families even more. Congress, please stop the HIT. Once and for all. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97250354ae7e5ce094daeaa035ec243e5a8b3a6b2aec91e624 **


FRIDAY'S MOST CLICKED- Senate Democrats' video on Republicans and Obamacare.

TODAY IN CONGRESS- The House gavels in at 12 p.m. with votes at 6:30 p.m. Today's schedule: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97e6c67c7d8dd318e66080753c55549d6bfcea814ba040dd5f The Senate meets at 3 p.m. with a procedural vote on the Cures bill at 5:30 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL- House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy holds a pen and pad at 10:30 a.m. in H-107. Reps. Tim Murphy, Fred Upton and Eddie Bernice Johnson and Sens. John Cornyn, Chris Murphy, Bill Cassidy and Lamar Alexander hold a 2:30 p.m. press conference on the 21st Century Cures Act in SVC-201.

Sen. Orrin Hatch meets with Sen. Jeff Sessions in the afternoon in Hatch's Capitol office. House Democrats meet at 7 p.m. to vote on leaders for their campaign and policy committees.

WAY OFF THE HILL- House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra meets with California Gov. Jerry Brown in Sacramento. This is the first meeting between the two since the governor's nomination of Becerra to become California attorney general.

LUJAN ON TRACK FOR DCCC SPOT- Rep. Ben Ray Luján is on track to be re-elected to lead House Democrats' campaign arm after Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney decided Friday against challenging the New Mexico Democrat. Maloney will work with Luján on a post-mortem of what went wrong for Dems, which they will present at the caucus retreat early next year. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97360e27c0a7bb8060e4775a632e8c970d0da9b34c9e6761c3

Democrats meet this evening to vote on the remaining open leadership spots: DCCC chairman, the three chairmanships for the DPCC and the leadership post for a member who has served five terms or less. Even after all of the intra-party turmoil over the last few weeks, Pelosi said on Sunday she doesn't think Democrats are looking for a new direction. "I don't think people want a new direction," she said on CBS. "What we want is a better connection of our message to working families in our country."

GET ED-UCATED- Democratic insiders say that Anne Caprara of Priorities USA, Dan McNally of Sen. Michael Bennet's reelect, Brandon Davis of the DNC, two top DSCC staffers -- Preston Elliott and Christie Roberts -- and former IE director Martha McKenna are among the names being circulated to become the executive director of Senate Dems campaign arm. No decision has been made and our sources said the pool is even wider than those five contenders, but that's the buzz on Maryland Avenue right now. The NRSC picked Chairman Cory Gardner's chief of staff, Chris Hansen, to lead the GOP arm.

WORTH THE CLICK- "The Victory of 'No'" from Michael Grunwald on the stunning success of the GOP's anti-Obama obstructionism: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d976ef891ab77cbee528360b2877608cdf9fa88dfa08e6d0a66 And "Jeff Sessions' coming war on legal marijuana" from James Higdon: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d978e60dc7d8213464ea99ee2748750319a74bd82e3936b28a4

WHAT'S THE WRDA? House leaders are holding a spot for the water resources package on the floor this week, one of the last big to-do items before lawmakers leave for the year. Among the remaining sticking points is whether to include a provision requiring that federally-funded drinking water projects use steel and iron produced in the U.S., as Annie Snider reported Friday.

It's a fight that could offer an early signal of how Trump and Speaker Ryan, a free trade evangelist, will manage their differences. And you'd better believe Democrats are going to rub salt in that wound: later this morning Democrats are planning to take to Twitter in a campaign aimed at getting Trump to weigh in publicly in favor of the so-called Buy America provision, a senior Senate Democratic aide tells Huddle.

TWEET DU JOUR- Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe): Heidi Heitkamp just got into an elevator at Trump Tower with the Naked Cowboy, because This...is 2016.

FIRST IN HUDDLE: CASEY CONCERNS OVER PRICE- Sen. Bob Casey has "significant concerns" about the nomination of Rep. Tom Price to lead the Health and Human Services Department, he says in a statement out later this morning. "The question I have for President-elect Trump and his administration is how nominating the architect of schemes to destroy Medicare and Medicaid is consistent with his promises to protect these programs?" Casey says. The Pennsylvania senator, who's up for re-election in 2018, is a member of both the the Senate Finance Committee and HELP Committee, which consider the Price nomination.

GOHMERT'S BEEF WITH RIB RULE- Rep. Louie Gohmert is known for his end-of-the-week floor speeches, normally an appropriate denouement to what was a long and stressful few days on Capitol Hill. But the Texas lawmaker's monologue was extra special last week as he took aim at the Architect of the Capitol, who hasn't let him cook ribs on his office balcony for the last seven years (you know, because it's a fire hazard). "It's probably the only time here on Capitol Hill when I actually leave a good taste in people's mouths instead of a bitter taste," he said about his legendary ribs. More from Cristina Marcos: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d971895b9dd659a3c79aa9ad593df2f943bb049569a2e5a6250

A STAR-STUDDED SEND-OFF- Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid will get a star-studded sendoff Thursday, including a farewell speech from his frenemy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "In the evening a reception for Reid will be held in the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building, where Reid's portrait will be unveiled and a group of A-list politicians will reminisce about Reid. McConnell, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Pelosi will speak before Reid makes remarks," Burgess reports. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97c530a937e27b24db3242a38c9ab8534f358b5590cd998c43

WEEKEND WEDDINGS- Dara Postar and Marshall Cohen from the New York Times: "Mrs. Cohen, 32, works in Washington as the chief of staff to Representative Norma J. Torres, a California Democrat. ... Mr. Cohen, 29, is the deputy political director in Washington for the Democratic Governors Association. ... The couple were introduced in 2013 by friends in Washington." With pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97d59a8d48b549242e28c699985b27b8e96c3efa1be7b1fb12 ...Wedding pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d974d76220d5212e05d625623dc551b2ce245ea2a808bbbbf29

--Emma King and Brett Doyle: "Mrs. Doyle, 28, is a registered lobbyist in Washington for the Ford Motor Company. ... Mr. Doyle, 27, is a legislative assistant in Washington for Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania. ... The couple met in January 2011 on their first day of work for Senator Toomey in Washington. At the time, she was a staff assistant and he was a legislative correspondent." With pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97aac90f11d9405636b97bf8442cd3dfb63bb819679ab93825

SPOTTED at last night's Kennedy Center honors, which celebrated Mavis Staples, James Taylor, the Eagles, Al Pacino and Martha Argerich and was hosted by Stephen Colbert: Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, former Rep. Mike Rogers, Sen.-elect Tammy Duckworth, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Rep. Tom Price (HHS Sec nominee), Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (D-Calif.).

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Peter Roff was the first to correctly guess that late Kentucky Rep. Bill Natcher served the longest without ever missing a House vote, casting 18,401 votes from 1953 through 1994. And shout out to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who guessed correctly too.

TODAY'S TRIVIA- Andrew Brennan with today's question: Who was the last secretary of Defense to have served in both the House and Senate and who currently occupies those seats? The first person to correctly guess the answer to today's question gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle.

Send suggestions for trivia questions my way: hcaygle@politico.com

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** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) drives up health care costs for small businesses, seniors, state Medicaid programs and middle-income Americans. The HIT is estimated to cost hardworking American families an additional $5,000 over a decade. And since the cost and consequences of the HIT increase over time, America's small businesses and hardworking families are facing a bigger HIT every year. This translates to real jobs for businesses and real wages for families. That's why the Stop The HIT Coalition - representing the nation's small business owners and their employees - is working hard to repeal the HIT before it causes even more damage.
Congress, please stop the HIT. Once and for all. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=71ad683970669d97250354ae7e5ce094daeaa035ec243e5a8b3a6b2aec91e624 **

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