*** The House and Senate agreed to terms on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package over the weekend. The relief package is expected to be included in the $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations bill, which will be put up for votes on Monday. In the meantime, the House passed a one-day stopgap funding bill to prevent a shutdown at midnight by a vote of 329-65. The Senate passed the bill without opposition under a unanimous consent motion and it was signed into law
*** The team of acting officials in power at the Pentagon are pushing a proposal to end the dual-hat arrangement of having a single commander in charge of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command. Currently Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone occupies both posts. The move requires that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff first certify that certain conditions laid out by Congress have been met in terms of the infrastructure of Cyber Command and the training and readiness of forces.
*** President Donald Trump disputed the attribution of the SolarWinds hack and subsequent intrusion into U.S. government networks to Russia.
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality," Trump tweeted on Saturday. "I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of....discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)."
The tweet followed a statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attributing the hack to Russia.