1/ House Republicans pushed through a rules package for the new Congress over concerns about the concessions Kevin McCarthy made to 20 far-right conservatives in order to secure his job. The rules packages passed 220-213, with one Republican joining the Democrats in unified opposition. Aside from the standard rules on decorum, the package includes a provision allowing lawmakers to reduce or eliminate federal agency programs, and reduce the salaries of individual federal employees. Another rule, known as “cut-go,” would require any new spending to be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget. While Democrats opposed the rules, they were more concerned about what other “back-room deals” McCarthy had agreed to in exchange for votes from the House Freedom Caucus. Meanwhile, a “secret three-page addendum” that only some House Republicans have see contains “the most controversial concessions” that McCarthy made to secure the speaker’s gavel. Anyway, after adopting rules, House Republicans used their first legislative vote on repealing more than $70 billion — or nearly 90% — in new funding for the IRS to customer service, taxpayer assistance, and criminal investigations. The bill, however, is unlikely to pass the Senate. (New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / Axios)

2/ In effort to equate it to the 320 classified documents the FBI seized from Trump’s residence, House Republicans requested a national security “damage assessment” of the 10 potentially classified documents found in Biden’s private office from his time as vice president. The Biden documents, which included intelligence memos and briefing materials on Ukraine, Iran, and the UK, were found on Nov. 2, 2022, in a “locked closet” in his Washington office space. The National Archives took custody of the documents the next day, and Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter. In contrast, Trump refused to turn over hundreds of classified documents to the National Archives for months, which led to the Archives referring the matter to the Justice Department, which led to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, where 33 boxes and containers were removed that are now under investigation by the Justice Department. Some of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago had some of the country’s highest security classification markings. Nevertheless, incoming House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner sent a request to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, claiming that Biden’s retention of the documents, dated between 2013 and 2016, put him in “potential violation of laws protecting national security, including the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act.” (Politico / Associated Press /