The weekend was a busy one on Capitol Hill, as congressional leaders began hammering out the blueprint for a $1.1 billion omnibus spending bill, with a deadline of Wednesday, Dec. 16, looming. Still unresolved, as of Monday afternoon: what restrictions might be imposed, via rider on the spending bill, on the program for resettling refugees coming to the U.S. from Syria and the Middle East.

While negotiations proceeded apace, Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed suit against the State Department, seeking to compel the production of documents pertaining to its program for resettling refugees, seeking details of State’s cooperation with a number of volunteer groups who work directly with refugee populations.

President Obama held a briefing with military officials Monday. “We are hitting ISIL harder than ever,” he announced shortly afterwards. “Coalition aircraft, our fighters, bombers and drones have been increasing the pace of airstrikes, nearly 9,000 as of today," Obama said, adding that ISIL has lost roughly 40 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq.

Polls continue to show Donald Trump riding high in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, as Ted Cruz showed new strength (and began trash-talking Trump in some venues). Stories about anxious establishment leaders meeting to talk through dump-Trump options were bountiful; commentators and Democrats began coalescing around a new talking point: “Trump is ISIS’s recruiter-in-chief.” Some pundits accelerated efforts discounting the significance of polling at this stage of the race. Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric was sure to be a major topic of discussion as Republicans readied for another debate, the fifth of this campaign, on CNN Tuesday night.

The Acela corridor buzzed about a David Remnick profile of Secretary of State John Kerry and his prospects for curbing the civil war in Syria.
GQ ran a story on what a week’s worth of Islamophobia in America looks like.
 Among other grantee activities:
--The ACLU released an open letter calling on all presidential contenders to “stand up against bigotry and division” by disavowing all attempts to discriminate on the bases of religion or nationality. This comes on the heels of a lawsuit the group is supporting against the governors of Indiana and Texas, challenging their efforts to suspend refugee resettlement in their states.

--Leaders of Human Rights first and the International Refugee Assistance Project joined forces on an op-ed arguing that terrorists want to use fear to turn the U.S. away from its traditional support for refugees, revisiting some of that history.

--Media Matters, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other grantees sought to publicize the track record of Islamophobia of Frank Gaffney’s Center for National Security as the center hosted several GOP presidential candidates at a forum Dec. 14.

--Grantee MPower Change joined CREDO in pressuring the Democratic frontrunner, too, to be vigilant against Islamophobia, sending a letter urging Hillary Clinton to distance herself from Gen. Wesley Clark, who has been active campaigning on her behalf. Clark called for the internment of Muslim-Americans this summer.

--MoveOn.org Civic Action touted its website, AmericaWelcomes, documenting photos of people in communities across the country holding signs welcoming refugees. The group joined with a number of other advocacy organizations in organizing and publicizing events in support of refugees around the country. A sampling:

o          Saturday, Dec. 5th, Hoosiers for Syrian Refugees March  in Bloomington, IN
o          Saturday, Dec. 5th, Demonstration against Racism, Islamophobia, and War in Rochester, NY
o          Sunday, Dec. 6th, Community Vigil: We Stand with Refugees in St. Paul, MN
o          Sunday, Dec. 13th, Care Packages for Local Refugees in Marriotsville, MD
o          Saturday, Dec. 19th, Demonstration to Welcome Syrian Refugees in New Orleans, NC

 --The #NoRiders Twitter campaign, backed by MoveOn.org among other grantees and aimed at preventing riders restricting refugee resettlement from being attached to the omnibus spending bill under review on Capitol Hill, publicized their results to date: more than 500 tweets to the hashtag since Friday, which made Twitter’s top trending lists in DC and nationally.

--America’s Voice, the Center for Community Change, United We Dream and Make the Road New York have all cooperated in driving a “DAPA dinner” campaign aimed at elevating issues faced by DAPA-eligible families. Today’s installment of the campaign brought Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton together with a family from Long Island.