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Congressional negotiators announced late Tuesday they had reached agreement on a “framework” for FY2023 spending, clearing the way for passage of an omnibus appropriations package before Christmas.Appropriators are not expected to reveal detailed top-line spending levels until a bill is written and filed, but negotiators had largely settled on a $858 billion defense budget while haggling over the nondefense number. The parties had been roughly $26 billion apart, with Republicans refusing to exceed the $1.65 trillion in total discretionary spending in President Joe Biden's budget request.And more than eight years ago, President Barack Obama stood before dozens of African leaders and made promises at the opening session for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the first of its kind. The summit, it was hoped, would be a jumping-off point for stronger ties between the United States and the continent. Fast-forward eight years later: Biden is hosting a sequel, and he is likely to give very similar remarks. But the situation on the continent has only grown more dire, with global crises such as climate change, Covid-19 and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine all hitting the continent especially hard. And after four years of Donald Trump at best neglecting and at worst denigrating the continent, this summit is something of a Hail Mary pass to improve relations. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange will go on as scheduled without its star witness: Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday at the behest of U.S. prosecutors who have secured indictments on a range of fraud charges. National political correspondent Ben Schreckinger stops by to share to what to expect.Panel chair Maxine Waters said in a statement Monday night she still wants to hear from Bankman-Fried, saying “the American public deserves to hear directly … about the actions that’ve harmed over one million people, and wiped out the hard-earned life savings of so many.” Current FTX CEO John Ray III, a cleanup expert known for his work at Enron after its 2002 collapse, will testify as planned. “The public has been waiting eagerly to get these answers under oath before Congress, and the timing of this arrest denies the public this opportunity,” Waters added. “While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened.” More from NYTAnd House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro is the biggest remaining obstacle to a huge government spending compromise that congressional leaders are circling, Caitlin Emma, Sarah Ferris and Burgess Everett report. Time is running short, but DeLauro said she’s “optimistic we can get to yes.” The Senate appropriations leaders have closed the $26 billion gap between Democrats’ and Republicans’ proposals, but “they’ve so far been unable to win DeLauro’s buy-in.” — Meanwhile, Congress has to pass a stopgap funding bill this week to avoid a shutdown and buy more time to negotiate the long-term deal. More from the WSJSubscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Sunday night that Democrats would not proceed as planned with a vote today on their own spending package, citing “sufficient progress in negotiations … over the weekend.”Government funding runs out Friday. Talks have stalled for weeks as the parties wrangle over funding levels, with Republicans thus far refusing to give Democrats the nondefense plus-ups they desire. Could the distant chime of jingle bells finally be having an effect?There’s no way an omnibus can be negotiated, drafted and passed in the next five days, so expect another stopgap to move this week. Beyond that? There’s already chatter about negotiations dragging right up to and even through the holiday season. We’ll see who blinks first. More from Roll CallPlaybook editor Mike DeBonis and co-author Rachael Bade discuss the funding fight plus the week ahead, including Sam Bankman-Fried's visit to Congresss and President Joe Biden's planned signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act on the South Lawn. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

POLITICO's Burgess Everett with a mega-scoop this morning: “Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is changing her party affiliation to independent, delivering a jolt to Democrats’ narrow majority and Washington along with it.“In a 45-minute interview, the first-term senator told POLITICO that she will not caucus with Republicans and suggested that she intends to vote the same way she has for four years in the Senate. ‘Nothing will change about my values or my behavior,’ she said.“Provided that Sinema sticks to that vow, Democrats will still have a workable Senate majority in the next Congress, though it will not exactly be the neat and tidy 51 seats they assumed. They’re expected to also have the votes to control Senate committees. And Sinema’s move means Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — a pivotal swing vote in the 50-50 chamber the past two years — will hold onto some but not all of his outsized influence in the Democratic caucus.”Plus, Mike DeBonis and Rachael Bade discuss the feasibility of a so-called unity House speaker, and FDA reporter and astrology emperor Katherine Foley stops by for some birthday news. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

The battle to become President Joe Biden's top defender on Capitol Hill is on.With Republicans sharpening their investigative knives for Biden (this week, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy released a list of more than a dozen lines of inquiry into the administration), the race to succeed outgoing Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) as the top Dem on the House Oversight Committee raging at a fever pitch. Who will it be?Plus, deputy editor Zack Stanton chats with Daniel Lippman's major investigation into the conduct of No Labels, the centrist group that has embarked on an ambitious $70 million project laying the groundwork for a unity ticket presidential campaign in 2024. But the story is different inside the walls of the organization. “Interviews with 14 former employees — including five who left in the last few months — and four other people familiar with No Labels reveals a cutthroat culture, one where staffers are routinely fired or pushed out, have little trust in management, and believe the workplace environment can be difficult for minority and female colleagues."

Over the past 30 months, Raphael Warnock has won a Senate primary, got the most votes in two general elections and won two runoffs. On Tuesday night, he finally won a full six-year term in the United States Senate. A lot has been said about how flawed a candidate that Warnock’s opponent, Herschel Walker, was. (A lot.) And so much of the conversation and coverage of Georgia’s election centered on what it would mean for the power of a current and a former president. But Warnock’s three-point win Tuesday underscored his own talents and cemented the 53-year-old pastor as one of the nation’s most compelling and effective Democratic politicians.Plus, Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and author Rachael Bade stop by to discuss the hot-and-cold relationship between House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio. 

Six days after top congressional leaders emerged from the White House suggesting they would work together to pass an omnibus government funding bill before the holidays, Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News last night and sent a very different message.“We’re 28 days away from Republicans having the gavel. We would be stronger in every negotiation. So any Republican that's out there trying to work with [Democrats] is wrong,” he said to host Laura Ingraham, who used her monologue last night to rail against Democrats trying to “take advantage of the few weeks remaining to ram through as much sweeping change as possible.” McCarthy extended his warning to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell: “Wait till we’re in charge,” he said.

 In roughly 37 hours, Georgians will cast the final votes of the 2022 midterms, deciding the Senate runoff between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker.The two campaigns spent the final weekend very differently. Warnock continued his flood-the-zone strategy, with six events across the state, while Walker held just one public event, on Sunday with GOP Sens. Tim Scott (S.C.) and John Kennedy (La.).Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and deputy editor Zack Stanton preview the race in Georgia, Wednesday's SCOTUS case on the ‘independent legislature’ theory that could radically reshape elections and South Carolina's request to hold the first presidential primary on the calendar. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio. 

The 11th Circuit delivered a unanimous opinion shutting down the special master review of the documents that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago and dismissing Donald Trump's civil lawsuit over the matter. The opinion was an embarrassing rebuke of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who was widely criticized for indulging what legal scholars across the ideological spectrum described as Trump’s specious arguments.The appeals court did not think the case was even a close call. “This appeal requires us to consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation,” the opinion began. “The answer is no.” Plus, tech reporter Rebecca Kern stops by for the latest update on Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, including his endorsement of possible GOP 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis, his possible spat with Apple and CEO Tim Cook and the future of anti-trust legislation. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Since Election Day, the drama in the House has been concentrated on the GOP side, as Kevin McCarthy tries to overcome a MAGA world mutiny to get the gavel, and Democrats smoothly elect three new leaders to succeed Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn.But it turns out things are not all kumbaya in the House Dem caucus. — Amid some Democrats’ discontentment about Clyburn’s insistence on staying in leadership, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) has decided to challenge him for the assistant leader job — a vote that will happen later today. — And there’s an intense whisper campaign happening behind the scenes about Rep. Tony Cárdenas' (D-Calif.) bid to head the DCCC — one that compiles ugly past allegations about sexual assault, as well as new alleged connections to a man known as the “boogeyman of porn.” Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.