Nov 20, 2014 4 min read

Wake Up To Politics - November 20, 2014

To read today's edition of Wake Up To Politics in a PDF format, click here. Continue reading to find the text of the Wake Up in the body of the email!

Thursday, November 20, 2014
719 Days Until Election Day 2016
It's Thursday, November 20, 2014, I'm Gabe Fleisher for my Triumphant Return from Gettysburg edition of Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP or subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or read my tweets and follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Wakeup2Politics.
White House Watch

The President’s Schedule At 10 AM, Obama will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing.
At 11:30 AM, the President will award the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation in the East Room.
At 8:01:30 PM (the TV networks wait an extra 1½ minute before airing), President Barack Obama will return to the East Room to deliver an address to the nation on immigration.
In his primetime immigration speech, President Obama will roll out a series of executive actions that allows any undocumented immigrants (who have lived in the US for at least five years) to apply for a program protecting them from deportation. Other criteria, such as criminal record, will be used to determine if these immigrants will be able to work legally in their adopted country. This program will cover 4 million undocumented immigrations who would qualify and live across the United States.
An additional 1 million immigrants will also be protected, by other parts of the President’s new plan. These executive orders are mainly focused on “Dreamers,” immigrants brought to the US illegally as minors by their parents. Farm workers or parents of “Dreamers” are not offered special protections in Obama’s plan.
Other executive actions part of the new program to be rolled out tonight on primetime include the replacing of the controversial Secure Communities law enforcement program, and changes allowing high-skilled workers to be kept at tech companies.
While these executive actions will bring President Obama praise from immigration activists who have been calling for such a program for years. Tonight’s rollout is the fulfillment of a months-ago promise Obama made, saying he would announce immigration executive actions before January 1, 2015.
Meanwhile, however, this will only sour the relationship between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans, less than two months before the GOP will take over both houses of Congress.Capitol Hill News
Senate: Status Update In one of the last acts of the lame-duck Democratic Senate, 11 judicial and executive nominees will be confirmed today: a bipartisan gift before the holiday season commences, and the Republican Senate with it.
Five roll call votes will be held on District Judge nominees, and 11 voice votes on the Ambassadors to Moldova, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Jamaica, Albania, and Slovenia, as well as three Judges of the U.S. Tax Court, the Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury, and Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development.
The expected confirmation of all 16 nominees caps off a week of voice votes that put in place a number of President Obama’s nominees before the 113^th Congress convenes, and is replaced by the Republican-controlled 114^th.
House: Status Update Today, the U.S. House will vote on the Promoting New Manufacturing Act, proposed by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the conservative House Majority Whip who follows me on Twitter.
The bill, which Scalise says would “jumpstart a broken permitting system,” focuses on Clean Air Act permits, and “requires the Environmental Protection Agency to provide guidance on how to comply with new or revised air quality standards and calls on the EPA to make public the number of Clean Air Act New Source Review pre-construction permits issued and the timeliness of the process. It also requires the agency to provide Congress with an annual report on actions taken by EPA to expedite permits,” according to The Times-Picayune.
The Obama White House has threatened to veto the bill if it passes the House, which it is expected to do today.

Election Central

2016 Central – Jim Webb Announces 2016 Exploratory Committee The first well-known potential 2016 presidential candidate has announced an exploratory committee.
Introducing Jim Webb…former U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Republican Ronald Regan, and a U.S. Senator from Virginia until he retired last year.
Webb launched a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday and a campaign site, Webb2016.com.
“I have decided to launch an exploratory committee to examine whether I should run for president in 2016,” Webb says in a video on the website. “I made this decision after reflecting on numerous political commentaries and listening to many knowledgeable people. I look forward to listening and talking with more people in the coming months as I decide whether or not to run.”
Webb, who calls himself “one who spent four years in the Reagan Administration but who served in the Senate as a Democrat,” is running for the Democratic nomination for President. If he officially decides to jump in the race, he would face an uphill climb to the nomination against Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, or any of the other top-mentioned candidates. He is, however, a well-known and well-liked former U.S. Senator (at least in Virginia) just one year removed from Congress, who could have some effect on the race…just not as its winner.
Webb joins 139 others who have either filed a presidential exploratory committee or presidential campaign with the Federal Election Committee (FEC). While he is by no means a major presidential candidate, Webb is the most (only) well-known individual of the 139.