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With Burgess Everett, Olivia Beavers, Nicholas Wu and Sarah Ferris.

CONTINUING IRRESOLUTION? — Fluid might be the word of the day on Capitol Hill. At dawn there was not yet a deal to avert a government shutdown, even as the clock ticks towards Friday’s deadline. But lawmakers are scrambling to try to settle on a short term spending bill that can get moving in the House, even if a holdup is ahead in the Senate.

The House moved up their session, an indication that they are aiming to accommodate floor action. But the House schedule for Thursday includes the ominous “???” in place of timing for first and last votes. If a bill comes together early this morning, it is possible it gets added to the already-scheduled House Rules meeting and the ball gets rolling (more on that Rules meeting later.) But that’s just one -- optimistic -- option.

Exasperation was a pervasive mood around Capitol Hill Wednesday when the bill and votes didn’t materialize. But senior House Democrats tried to signal positivity for clinching a shutdown-averting deal with GOP leaders, wrote Sarah and Caitlin. “We’re still waiting. Still waiting,” House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), said Wednesday afternoon. “Let’s keep some optimism.”

The holdups? The same as earlier in the week. There isn’t agreement on how long a stopgap spending measure should last. Democrats want it to run through late January, but Republicans are insisting on a longer timeline, relishing the opportunity to lock in spending levels approved under the Trump administration for as long as possible.

“Republicans should be in favor of CRs until Biden is out of office,” said Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw. “That would be the proper Republican thing to do and anybody saying otherwise is deeply foolish.”

Dinner plans: Alabama's Richard Shelby, the top Senate Republican appropriator, told reporters Wednesday that they could be in for “some long nights between now and Friday,” when federal cash would lapse.

RELATED: Republicans feud over vaccine shutdown fight, by Burgess.

GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, December 2, where the song of the day is Tired of Waiting for You.

NDAA MESS — The Senate burned yet another day of precious floor time without a breakthrough on the defense bill stalemate yesterday, and senators haven’t taken a roll-call vote since Monday. Just like the CR, NDAA is in “wait and see” mode.

A tentative agreement to vote on 25 amendments to the NDAA quickly fell apart late Wednesday night over a dispute about Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) Uyghur forced labor amendment. It’s a bit wonky, but here goes: Senior House Democrats say the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously earlier this year, has a blue-slip problem because it generates revenue and therefore must originate in the House, according to the Constitution. So attaching it to the NDAA would effectively kill the whole underlying bill, Democrats say. Rubio counters that that’s just an excuse for the fact that the House doesn’t want to swallow the amendment: “They wield this blue-slip thing to mean whatever they want it to mean.”

There was another objection, too, over Sen. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) push to change vaccination rules so that National Guard members wouldn’t lose pay for refusing to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. But the main issue right now is Rubio, and the Florida Republican isn’t showing signs of backing down.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pleaded with Republicans late Wednesday to convince Rubio to back down, adding: “I would ask Marco Rubio to sleep over this tonight.” He called the entire stalemate “sad, tragic, and almost absurd.” A spokesperson for Rubio responds: “Schumer blaming Marco for holding up the NDAA isn’t exactly a way to move forward, especially when Democrats are creating fake procedural excuses to avoid a vote on slave labor.”

‘THIS PLACE IS A SLOG’ — “Their retirements are piling up, with Rep. Peter DeFazio the latest announced departure on Wednesday. Their landmark bills are getting neutered in the Senate. They've already started a brutal round of redistricting as President Joe Biden's approval ratings nosedive. Several senior Democrats, some of them heading for the exits as well, say it's no surprise that so many are tapping out amid one of Congress’ most toxic sessions in recent memory,” write Sarah, Heather and Ally Mutnick. Read the full story: Majority blues: House Dems not done limping for the exit

This didn’t make the story, but it made your Huddle host laugh: "That's a tragedy. He's dean of the bald guy caucus. I resemble that man," Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) told Ally in response to DeFazio's retirement.

INCOMING: CLARK CONTEMPT — House Rules is set to take up a measure holding former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in criminal contempt of Congress this morning. The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol voted unanimously Wednesday night to advance the contempt charge to the full House for consideration. If the contempt process does move through the full House, the referral would go to the Justice Department for a potential criminal charge. Clark is the second person the panel has held in contempt of Congress after Steve Bannon, who was indicted for contempt of Congress last month. Nicholas and Kyle have more on what it means, why it matters and how Clark's situation is different from Bannon's.

BROOKS LOOKS AHEAD — Burgess caught up with GOP Senate candidate Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) late Wednesday to ask if he'd support McConnell as leader, a potential litmus test in Republican primaries. Here's what Brooks had to say: "I will support the candidate for Senate majority leader who is the most conservative and best reflects the values of Alabama citizens." Could that be Mitch McConnell? "If he's the most conservative. There are some that he's more conservative than, and some not. So yes, it could be."

FIRST IN HUDDLE: PROGS URGE PRESERVATION — More than 100 progressive national and local organizations, led by People's Action, Working Families Party, Indivisible, and CPD Action are sending a letter today to Schumer, urging him to keep the Democrats’ House-passed social spending and climate measure intact and resist the cuts anticipated to be needed to win over centrists in the Senate. Read the letter here.

FULL PAGER — Nearly 800 leaders and organizations across New York are urging Schumer to “do everything in his power” to ensure that paid leave remains in the final social spending bill. The signatories include political and business leaders, grassroots organizations, labor unions, members of the arts and entertainment community, and members of New York’s Jewish community. See the full-page ad they dropped in today’s New York Times.

SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS — A group of 22 House Democrats are urging party leaders to turn their focus to the nation’s supply chain kinks amid intensifying scrutiny over Biden’s handling of the economy.

“Congress must take this issue seriously and act,” the group, led by Reps. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), Susie Lee (D-Nev.) and Susan Wild (D-Pa.), wrote in a letter to their leadership Thursday, obtained by POLITICO. They urge leadership to quickly take up bills to tackle issue such as port congestion, a truck driver shortage, and more, noting

that some shipping container costs are up “500% from pre-pandemic” times.

Dems, particularly those with agriculture-heavy districts, are increasingly worried about supply chain bottlenecks. And many Dems privately fear those bottlenecks and worker shortages are becoming a major economic — and political — weakness for their party. Biden’s approval rating has already taken a hit as economic discontent rises, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE? — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has an approach when controversies crop up with his members: Deal with it quietly and privately. That was put to the test this week (maybe an understatement.) Olivia and Heather dig into McCarthy’s methods for uniting his conference, putting out fires and how he’s faring.

COVID CONCERNS — House Democrats had a special guest talking about the Omicron variant during their Wednesday closed-door caucus meeting: Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Jha told Nick in a phone interview later Wednesday he walked House Democrats through their concerns about the new variant and whether it might be more concerning than other ones. But “under no circumstances should we think that we are somehow back in March of 2020,” he told Nick, citing the tools available to fight the coronavirus now like vaccines and new tests.

CAPITOL CONFECTION — The magnificent gingerbread Capitol, crafted by House executive chief Fred Johnson, is set to make a comeback after a pandemic hiatus last year. Huddle will have more details soon on when and where the sweet architectural feat will be unveiled.

IT’S LIT — Some of the best arboreal comments at the Capitol Christmas Tree lighting:

McCarthy: “Think for a moment; what is a tree? A tree is the lungs of the earth. A tree breathes in CO2, captures the carbon but releases the oxygen and purifies.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.): “It’s tall and slim”....“Trees like this need water and water has to come and they have to live.”

Pelosi: “This is a bipartisan, a nonpartisan tree.”

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) referenced wildfires and wildlife habitats while Feinstein featured drought and danger to trees in her remarks. The California delegation brought a cautionary environmental tone to the festive event, expressing the reality of environmental peril that The Golden State faces.

PAUL RYAN’S PICTURE — Another portrait of former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) was unveiled last night. The Ways and Means chairman portrait is one of three he’s eventually expected to have. He already has a Budget Committee portrait, unveiled in 2018, and he'll also eventually have one in the Speaker's Lobby.

TRANSITIONS

Craig Anderson is now director of government affairs for the Georgia Forestry Association. He previously was legislative director for Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.).

John Howes is now counsel for Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio). He previously was government affairs counsel at the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House convenes at 8 a.m. for morning hour and 10 a.m for legislative business.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. with a vote at noon.

AROUND THE HILL

10:45 a.m. Pelosi holds her weekly press conference (Studio A).

11 a.m. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) and others hold a press conference on the “Crucial Communism Teaching Act” (House Triangle).

11:30 a.m. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) hold a press conference on Iranian Human Rights Activist Mashi Alinejad (S-115).

WEDNESDAY’S WINNER: Kirtan Mehta correctly answered that the tradition of the Capitol Christmas Tree dates back to 1964. That’s when Architect of the Capitol J. George Stewart established the yearly tradition of decorating a tree on the West Front Lawn, at the suggestion of Speaker John W. McCormack. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service has provided the trees since 1970.

TODAY’S QUESTION from Kirtan: What federal agency celebrates its birthday today, December 2?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected]

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Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus