Wake Up To Politics - December 8, 2014
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Monday, December 8, 2014
701 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Monday, December 8, 2014, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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White House Watch
The President’s Schedule At 10:45 AM, President Obama will meet with Britain’s Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge.
Prince William, who is 2nd in line for British throne, is in D.C. today to speak at the World Bank about combatting illegal wildlife trafficking. While William is in D.C., his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, will be in New York City wrapping gifts at an early childhood development center with Chirlane McCray, wife of Mayor Bill deBlasio. Later today, the Duke will meet up with the Duchess in New York for a reception co-hosted by the Royal Foundation and the Clinton Foundation, to celebrate the work on wildlife conservation by both groups. Here, William and Catherine will meet the closest thing to American royalty: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Tonight, the Duke and Duchess will watch the basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers. Tomorrow, the two will complete their trip with a tour of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
At 11:20 AM, the President will meet with middle-school students (not me) who are participating in the “Hour of Code,” a week-long event to learn about coding, in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week.
This is really a pretty cool program to teach students about coding – so if YOU are in middle school, or if you are the teacher or parent of a middle schooler…check out hourofcode.com. I might be doing it (I did it last year), although now that I know it will no longer get me in with the President (since he’s already having a meeting)…what’s the point?
Finally, at 3:45 PM, President Obama will tape an interview for Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” with host Stephen Colbert at George Washington University. The episode airs tonight and will be one of Colbert’s last at Comedy Central, as he moves to CBS’s “The Late Show,” to take over for David Letterman next month, and leaves his character behind. The last episode of “The Colbert Report” is on December 18.
Also today, Obama’s interview with Black Entertainment Television will air, his first network interview since the Michael Brown & Eric Garner grand juries. The full interview with BET News’ Jeff Johnson airs at 6 PM Eastern Time.
Biden’s Day Later today, Vice President and Dr. Biden will host Prince William for a separate White House meeting. Capitol Hill News
Status Update A huge spending deadline for Thursday is staring Congress in the face, so of course both chambers return to what they do best…doing nothing. Or more accurately, almost nothing (depending on how you count post office namings).
Today, the U.S. Senate will vote on a nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, one to the National Labor Relations Board, and on the nominee to be Director of Advanced Research Projects at the Energy Department – three groups I could not tell you very much about.
Meanwhile, the U.S. House will vote to name five post offices, three courthouses, two outpatient clinics, one highway, and one scenic byway.
Status Update of Negotiations House-Senate negotiators hope to unveil their spending bill late Monday, so it can at least be passed at the 11th hour before a government shutdown Thursday (the 11th hour isn’t great…but it’s better than the 13th hour).
To keep conservatives happy, the Department of Homeland Secuirty is only funded until February (to try and derail funding of Obama’s immigration executive order), while the $1.1 billion package funds the rest of the government through September 2015.