With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

WHAT TO … NOT EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING JET FUMES

The holidays are upon us – a popular time to catalog everything that Congress still needs to do. So we thought we’d take a more pragmatic approach: laying out what lawmakers are unlikely to get done as they prepare to leave Washington by the end of next week.

That leaves only a few chaotic days left in session, which means it’s easy to see quite a lot getting delayed until January or beyond.

Here’s where the unfinished business stands:

Federal spending: Remember those five individual spending bills that House Republicans have yet to pass? They’ve all but abandoned plans to try, as Speaker Mike Johnson’s staff instead quietly engages in talks over topline fiscal year 2024 numbers with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s staff. An agreement remains elusive.

After lawmakers left town this week without that agreement, it’s starting to look very possible they’ll end December without a consensus framework for talks – and with the first government funding deadline looming on Jan. 19.

To recap the stalemate, House conservatives are insisting on spending no money outside the spending caps established by this summer’s $1.59 trillion debt deal. That would mean nixing a handshake agreement to potentially add tens of billions of dollars to non-defense programs.

Hardliners are also pushing to include any emergency money — such as tens of billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine — under existing spending caps. That’s an obvious no-go for Democrats. So it’s easy to see nothing happening on this before the holidays.

Foreign aid: After a failed Senate vote on President Joe Biden’s $100 billion-plus request this week, border security negotiators are back to working on a possible deal that could win over the GOP support needed to pass aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

There’s some chatter among appropriators about trying to shift existing funds to help Ukraine, but Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) shot down that idea.

“If we don’t give money to Ukraine, there ain’t any to reprogram,” he said.

Democratic senators are optimistic that progress can be made on the emergency spending package of aid and border provisions before the end of the year – but without an official change in the schedule, it’s an increasingly safe bet that Congress will leave for the holidays without passing anything on this.

FAA: Reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration got decoupled from government funding months ago. Lawmakers described that as an intentional move to keep aviation safety from causing a “double shutdown” should no overall spending deal get reached.

But we’re already close to the Dec. 31 expiration of the FAA patch they passed, and – trend alert! – it looks like yet another stopgap patch will be needed. The House and Senate are expected to pass that next week to extend FAA’s current authorization until March 8, theoretically giving senators more time to negotiate.

While the House passed its FAA bill with a large bipartisan majority over the summer, the Senate has yet to move its version.

Farm bill: The 2018 farm bill got its own stopgap extension that runs until Sept. 30, 2024, and key lawmakers have already conceded that they won’t even start on a new bill until next year while competing priorities like fiscal 2024 appropriations take precedence.

Of course, they also continue to bicker over funding targets for the $1 trillion-plus food and agriculture bill.

Happy Holidays, readers!

— Daniella Diaz, with assist from Alex Daugherty, Caitlin Emma and Garrett Downs

GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, Dec. 8, where we hope you have a wonderful weekend!

HISPANIC DEM PANS GOP BORDER OFFER AS ‘UNSERIOUS’

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) slammed the GOP border proposal — which was exclusively obtained by POLITICO — in a statement to Huddle on Friday, calling the latest offer from Republicans “extraordinarily dangerous.”

“Compromise on this issue is possible and necessary, but only if done in a meaningful and serious way. Republican threats to hand over Ukraine to Russia unless Democrats give them severe limitations to asylum and parole is not just unserious, but it’s extraordinarily dangerous,” she said in the statement. “And what’s even more unserious is that none of the Republican “solutions” would even change the situation at the border.”

In the statement, she pointed to her bipartisan bill with Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) as a way to “address the most pressing facets of our broken immigration system.”

The latest GOP offer is aimed at jumpstarting talks on a package of border measures as well as aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It includes measures that would ban class-based parole and extended parole, with a new expulsion authority similar to Title 42, as well as electronic monitoring and expedited removal authority.

The two sides are continuing to negotiate even after the recent failed Senate vote on President Joe Biden’s $100 billion-plus national security spending request, but the Latino Democrats’ statement indicates that pushback from the left (which we also told you about this week) against perceived over-compromising is going to make it pretty difficult to reach a viable agreement.

— Daniella Diaz, with assistance from Ursula Perano and Anthony Adragna

George Santos’ video for Jimmy Kimmel is … something!

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and her fiance have broken up, according to the Daily Mail. TBD whether her romantic life comes up at next year’s National Prayer Breakfast…

Look who made NYT’s Most Stylish ‘People’ of 2023: a certain retiring former speaker pro tem.

Jared Moskowitz is out with a troll post on his GOP colleagues.

QUICK LINKS

GOP lawmaker: Ousted aides targeted my daughter for OnlyFans account, from Olivia Beavers

Tuberville lifted his military blockade. But those officers are still stuck, from Lara Seligman and Connor O’Brien

Republicans issue border policy counter-proposal, from Myah Ward, Burgess Everett and Jennifer Haberkorn

TRANSITIONS

Jonathan Eberle is now senior comms adviser for Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.). He most recently was director of comms for FreedomWorks and is a Matt Rosendale and Andy Biggs alum.

MONDAY IN CONGRESS

The House is in session.

The Senate is in session.

MONDAY AROUND THE HILL

Quiet, until lawmakers start coming back to town later in the day.

THURSDAY’S ANSWER: Kenny Wright correctly answered that Mario Díaz-Balart and Ben McAdams were the first members of Congress to have tested positive for Covid.

TODAY’S QUESTION from Kenny: During Nancy Pelosi’s time as speaker, she had two close allies on the Appropriations committee, who together they called themselves “Delosi”. Who were those two members?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected].

GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each evening.

Follow Daniella on X at @DaniellaMicaela.