1. CONFIRMATION STATION: The Senate Judiciary Committee has punted FBI Director-designate Kash Patel’s nomination vote as Democrats on the panel pushed for a one-week delay, Hailey Fuchs reports. Dems asked for a second hearing with Patel, but Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) denied those requests. And grab the popcorn … Senate Democrats are still holding up the floor after talking through the night to protest Trump’s nomination of Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Once the 30 hours of debate expires tonight (at roughly 7 p.m.), the chamber will proceed to a confirmation vote, with every expectation being that Vought has enough GOP backing to sail through. 2. THE ‘FORK IN THE ROAD’: Ahead of tonight’s planned midnight deadline for federal workers to accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation/buyout offer, a federal judge in Massachusetts has delayed the deadline until at least Monday so that additional litigation can take place, Kyle Cheney reports. The big picture: Though more than 40,000 workers have reportedly voluntarily taken the offer, that’s far short of the target, raising fears of impending layoffs among some federal workers. The local angle: Though the nation’s two million-strong federal workforce is spread around the country, the prospect of federal job cuts is expected to disproportionately impact D.C.’s Capitol Hill, “a neighborhood where one out of three working residents is on the federal payroll,” WSJ’s Scott Calvert and Lindsay Ellis report. And the latest on USAID: Eric Bazail-Eimil is out with a helpful explainer on what could be next for USAID after the White House placed the agency’s entire staff on administrative leave. While programs focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and others focused on food aid and other humanitarian assistance could escape elimination, global democracy programs are bracing for cuts. 3. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Though White House aides say that Trump’s recent suggestion that the U.S. “take over Gaza” was a strategic move to grant Israel more sway over Hamas in negotations, Israeli military forces have been asked to prepare a plan for Palestinians to voluntarily leave the region, NBC News’ Chantal Da Silva reports. “Welcoming what he called Trump's ‘bold initiative,’ [Israeli Defense Minister] Israel Katz said in a statement Thursday that Palestinians in Gaza ‘should be granted the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is customary everywhere in the world.’” Trump doubled down on his proposal in a Truth Social post today, suggesting that Palestinians could be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities,” and that the U.S. would work with global “development teams” to build a site. “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!” he wrote. “Stability for the region would reign!!!” Fwiw … When asked on Capitol Hill today if he believes U.S. troops would need to be deployed to Gaza to make good on Trump’s proposal, Netanyahu simply replied, “No.” Elsewhere in the region … “U.S. Waives Aid Funding Freeze at Syrian Camp Holding ISIS Fighters,” NYT’s Erika Solomon and Ben Hubbard 4. AI ON THE BRAIN: A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) introduced a bill today to ban DeepSeek, the disruptive new Chinese AI smartphone application, from government-owned devices over fears it could allow China access to federal data, WSJ’s Natalie Andrews scoops. A recent analysis found the chatbot app “has intentionally hidden code that could send user login information to China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company that has been banned from operating in the U.S. … Other nations have already taken steps to ban the app from obtaining government data.” 5. MUSK READS: As aides to Elon Musk continue to fan out across federal agencies, some career employees fear that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency could be using AI to surveil them and view their personnel files, per CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs. “Some federal employees say they found a program downloaded to their govt computers that could be used to sift through their team chats to search for keywords,” Jacobs reports, noting their concern that Musk could be using their government tech to monitor their loyalty to Trump. Survey says … Musk’s popularity has taken a hit among battleground state voters, with new polling from Democratic-aligned House Majority Forward finding that his “approval rating is upside down (43 percent approve to 51 percent disapprove) and his favorability is even worse (42 percent favorable to 51 percent unfavorable),” Ally Mutnick writes. Armed with this data, Democrats are continuing to weaponize Musk’s sweeping changes and disfavor as a way to bash Trump, Ally and Holly Otterbein report. 6. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: “North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine by Russian forces since late December have been far more precise than salvos of the weapons launched over the past year,” Reuters’ Tom Balmforth reports, suggesting that “North Korea is successfully using the battlefield to test its missile technology.” Though an analysis of the destroyed missiles couldn’t pinpoint the exact changes to their design, one military source explained their sudden preciseness could be explained by “the missiles being fitted with better navigation systems or with a steering mechanism to help manoeuvring,” Balmforth writes. 7. STORM WATCH: “Trump’s FEMA chief assailed the agency with untruths,” by Thomas Frank: “Cameron Hamilton, who took over Jan. 22 as acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has embraced false Republican narratives that FEMA ‘depleted’ its disaster aid by helping migrants and blocked supplies to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. … POLITICO’s E&E News examined more than 1,000 posts by Hamilton on X and reviewed hours of his interviews with conservative news outlets. They reveal that Trump, who has threatened to disband FEMA, has placed the crucial agency in the hands of someone who echoes the president’s own often-misleading attacks.”
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