The government is funded as of last Thursday despite ridiculous Republican tricks, leaving Congress to get on with the next bunch of ridiculous antics, like raising or suspending the debt limit in the next eight days. The Treasury Department says the have until Dec. 15 to get it done, or risk sending the nation into default for the first time ever. That’s the most looming crisis for Congress, but passing the defense authorization bill is a close second, followed by President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) bill in the Senate, which passed the House last month. Last week, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio made passing the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate impossible after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had agreed upon the amendments that would be offered. Rubio’s amendment isn’t among them because it created a procedural problem that would have forced the House to redo the bill (it passed it already, back in September), so Rubio blew up the deal, refusing to allow the Senate to move forward on it. Because it’s the Senate and one minority member can do that. The result of this is that the House has work on the bill again, but while they’re doing that, they are figuring out if they can take care of the debt ceiling simultaneously. The defense bill is now off the Senate floor officially, along with the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate defense committees. House Chair Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington State, is aiming to have the bill negotiated and ready to print by the end of the day Monday so that it can be done in both chambers before the end of this week. Read more