Monday morning news: January 6, 2025

Congress plans » The newly re-elected speaker of the House Mike Johnson says Republicans have a lot of work to do between now and Donald Trump’s inauguration on the 20th.

JOHNSON:  We want to make sure that we're jump starting the agenda now over the next two weeks so that he's prepared and ready on, on day one.

He says the president-elect wants Congress to get to work on one massive policy package covering everything from border security to tax cuts.

Johnson concedes that even though the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, their majorities are slim, and moving big legislation won’t be easy.

Some Democratic members, like Congressman Jake Auchincloss, are already signaling opposition to planned Republican tax cuts.

AUCHINCLOSS:  I don't know how their fiscal hawks are going to be able to justify at a time when the stock market is up, jobs are up, wages are up, that they have to give tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest and blow up the deficit.

Republicans say the answer to reigning in the deficit is pro-growth policies combined with slashing government waste and overspending.

Homan on deportations » Funding border security and immigration enforcement, as we mentioned, will be at the top of the priority list. And incoming border czar Tom Homan says the Trump administration will be working to reverse the impacts of border policies from the last four years.

HOMAN:  If you look at the historic number of illegal entries in the last four years, ICE, Immigration Customs Enforcement, has the lowest number of deportations in the history of the agency.

And he told CBS’ Face the Nation that the majority of those deportations were arrests made by the Border Patrol rather than deportations from within the country.

Ukraine support » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will urge allies to boost his country's air defenses at a meeting this week in Germany. Dozens of countries, including the US, will participate in Thursday's meeting at Ramstein Air Base.

Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee until recently, has stressed the importance, in his view, of continuing to back Ukraine.

MCCAUL:  It's not just Putin. Putin is aligned with Chairman Xi in China, who threatens the Indo Pacific. He's also aligned with the Ayatollah in the Middle East, who we have seen threaten Israel.

But Republicans are divided on continued Ukraine support.

President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to take office with a vow to end the nearly 3-year-old war.

Presidential medal of honor » At the White House, President Biden fastened medals around the necks of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor-director Denzel Washington and others over the weekend:

BIDEN:  For the final time as President, I have the honor of bestowing the Medal of Freedom our nation's highest civilian honor on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people.

Others among the 19 awardees included singer and philanthropist Bono of U2 fame, Magic Johnson, and Michael J. Fox.

He also bestowed the honor on controversial billionaire Democratic donor George Soros.

New Orleans latest » The FBI says the perpetrator in last week’s deadly terror attack in New Orleans may have planned the attack months in advance, making two trips to the city before the new year’s morning attack.

And Christopher Raia with the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division told reporters Sunday that the bureau still believes Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone.

RAIA: All investigative details  and evidence that we have now still support that Jabbar acted alone here in New Orleans. We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates inside the United States and outside of our borders.

Fourteen people were killed and dozens were injured when Jabbar drove a truck at high speed into a crowd on Bourbon Street before police shot and killed Jabbar.

Winter weather » A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central U.S. on Sunday.

Bob Oravec with the National Weather Service parts of Kansas have seen nearly a foot of snow.

ORAVEC: And over the next two days, a pretty big impact from this storm as it spreads eastward. A lot of areas from Kansas to the east coast are under winter storm warnings, and we do anticipate a pretty broad area of heavy snow. Snow totals 6 to 12 inches all the way from Kansas to the east coast, including the capital of the United States.

He said snowfall in some areas could be the heaviest seen in those locations in a decade.

More than 50-million Americans were under some kind of winter weather watch or warning as of early this morning. 

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the Supreme Court considers fraud and liability cases. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat with economist David Bahnsen.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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