Good Thursday morning, I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Flash Briefing,

sponsored by the Coalition to Protect America's Healthcare. And I'm Jake Sherman. We start this morning

with a new reality. The shutdown clock has started. There are just eight legislative days left

to pass a spending bill. Congress is expected to leave it to the last minute. No surprise there.

And take up a funding

bill the week of April 24th. What can go wrong? In addition to funding the government, House Republicans

are still picking up the pieces when it comes to their health care bill. Speaker Paul Ryan in an

interview with CBS's Nora O'Donnell on this morning, CBS this morning, basically acknowledged that if Republicans can't

step up their game soon, President Donald Trump will work with Democrats instead.

One thing we're watching very closely is a back and forth between the House and Senate over

their Russia probes. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and Democrat Mark Warner were

completely bipartisan on Wednesday, landing a few

punches in the Capitol together. Their message, we are the adults in the room and we're more

than happy to fill the void with the House inquiry in shambles. And the will she or won't

she guessing game on Ivanka Trump is finally over. Avanka is becoming an official government

employee. She will serve as an unpaid advisor to Trump in the White House taking on the title of senior advisor.

Ivanka isn't the only Trump family member to have a new gig.

Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura Trump, has been hired by the Trump campaign's digital vendor as a senior consultant.

Kelly Ann Conway has caused controversy again.

The American Association of Political Consultants gave Conway its MVP award last week,

causing a major backlash by several of its members who believe Conway violated the group's

code of ethics. In the juice, we've got Kate Bettingfield, Vice President Biden's former

...