Presented By the Stop The HIT Coalition

Good morning! Here’s your Daily News for Tuesday, December 11.

1. Farm Bill is ready.

• House and Senate negotiators have reached a deal on the $867 billion Farm Bill.
• The five-year bill was signed out of conference committee last night and is expected to hit the floor this week.
• One provision many conservatives really wanted – tougher work requirements for food stamps – was taken out of bill. House passed it, Senate couldn’t, what are you gonna do.
• But, they got strong measures preventing fraud and duplication within the food stamp program.
• That will disappoint some conservatives, and perhaps cause a handful to vote no, but there’s no way strict work requirements will pass the Senate without 60 votes.
• Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to enforce existing work requirements and review all programs, waivers and exemptions.
• The bill largely keeps the status quo for Alabama farmers. The Conservation Reserve program is expanded and now nieces and nephews can take part in the crop insurance program.
• Read more details from The Wall Street Journal and Agriculture.com.

2. Jeff Sessions is home today.

• Don’t forget: former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is in town today.
• By in town, I mean Montgomery.
• As I mentioned on Friday, Sessions is speaking to the Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting at noon.
• What will he talk about?
• He accomplished a lot of what he wanted to as AG, albeit quietly: crackdowns on illegal immigration and violent crime, curbing opioid abuse, and supporting the police.
• Most ears will likely be trained on what he has to say about the future. You know, that 2020 Senate race everybody has him running for.
• My guess? Don’t count on some big announcement. Sometimes it’s just good to be home and free from constraint.

A Message from the Stop The HIT Coalition

• The Stop The HIT Coalition thanks Senator Doug Jones for protecting Alabama small businesses, middle-class families and seniors from the 2020 Health Insurance Tax.
• This costly, unfair and hidden tax increases the cost of health insurance in the small business market, needlessly stifles economic growth and should be repealed.
• Senator Jones joined a bipartisan group in urging Senate leadership to prioritize urgent cost savings for hardworking Alabamians before the tax returns.
• Thank Senator Jones for working for Alabama small businesses and families by supporting efforts to stop the 2020 Health Insurance Tax.

3. Time for ‘Chuck and Nancy.’

• How will we fund the government??
• Will Congress fund a border wall?
• Good questions. It is ten days until several agencies run out of money, including Homeland Security.
• Today, President Donald Trump will meet with Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer today to figure some of this out.
• They are trying to avert a partial government shutdown amid a sharp dispute over the president’s border wall proposal.
• There are other things on the list, though. The farm bill (POTUS wanted work requirements) and a formal rebuke of Saudi Arabia for the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• “Republicans still control the House, the Senate and the White House, and they have the power to keep government open,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement Monday.
• That’s not exactly true given the rules of the Senate, but it’s crazy how much better Democrats are than Republicans at these negotiations. Crazier still that some Democrats want to get rid of Chuck & Nancy.
• In case you were wondering how things might go, look no further than Alabama’s Sen. Richard Shelby, who had this to say about his latest meeting with Trump on budget negotiations:

• Full story HERE.

4. Hoover cracking down.

• Three people have been arrested in the continuing protests over the Thanksgiving night shooting.
• Two men were arrested on disorderly conduct charges after a protest that briefly shut down I-459. A woman was arrested after someone was seen throwing Christmas ornaments into traffic in Hoover, where the shooting occurred.
• In a statement, the city said it supported the right to protest peacefully but that blocking I-459 presents “a serious public safety concern for everyone.”
• “We have consistently stated that we will not allow roads and highways to be blocked by protesters because it is hazardous and jeopardizes the safety of all citizens and visitors to Hoover,” the statement said.
• Read more HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• Google’s CEO faces a grilling from U.S. lawmakers on how the web search giant handled an alarming data breach and whether it may bend to Chinese government censorship demands.
• CEO Sundar Pichai’s appearance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee comes after he angered members of a Senate panel in September by declining their invitation to testify about foreign governments’ manipulation of online services to sway U.S. elections.
• Alabama’s Rep. Martha Roby is on the House Judiciary Committee.
• You can watch live beginning at 10:00 Eastern, 9:00 Central HERE.

• China’s economy czar and U.S. trade envoys discussed plans for talks on a tariff battle, indicating negotiations between our countries are going ahead.
• Vice Premier Liu He talked by phone with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer talked by phone about “the promotion of the next economic and trade consultations,” said a two-sentence Commerce Ministry statement. It gave no other details.
• The announcement indicated talks are on track despite China’s weekend threats of unspecified “grave consequences” if the Huawei Technologies Ltd. executive arrested in Canada last week isn’t released. She was arrested on U.S. charges of possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran.
• Gotta love Canada when it comes to the Iranians.
• Anyway, read more HERE.

• Two women are charged with taking drugs into an Alabama prison while visiting male inmates.
• The Department of Corrections says 46-year-old Delicia Sweet of Enterprise was arrested Sunday after an officer at Staton prison in Elmore found her with a package containing marijuana. She was visiting an inmate at the time.
• The agency says 51-year-old Donna Stewart of Brookwood was arrested after an officer found drugs on an inmate the woman was visiting. A statement from prison officials says the woman admitted giving the marijuana to the man.
• Both women are charged with promoting prison contraband, and Sweet also is charged with marijuana possession.

Headlines.

Front Pages (images link to newspaper websites, which you should visit and patronize)