Today is Thursday, December 19th. We'll tell you about two big, controversial bills in Congress,

one that just passed, another that's facing a new setback, threatening a government shutdown just

before Christmas. Also, what the Federal Reserve announced, that led to a historic fall on Wall Street.

Plus, the first statewide emergency over bird flu, an update on TikTok's mission to keep its app available in America,

and the trendy animal of the season, while you may notice cababaras everywhere.

Those stories and even more news to know next.

Welcome, welcome to The Newsworthy, all the day's news in around 10 minutes.

Fast, fair, fun, and on the go. I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. You ready? Let's do this.

Lawmakers have had two big things on their to-do list before going home for winter break at the end of this week. And they're both controversial. Well, so far, just one of them has passed.

That one is the defense policy bill. It's needed to make sure American troops keep getting paid,

and military families continue to be supported. This year, it gives pay raises to all enlisted

service members, funds nuclear modernization, expands America's presence in the Indo-Pacific region, and more.

And most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were happy about all of that.

But there was doubt about whether the bill would pass since Republicans added a measure to keep the military's health program

from covering transgender-related health care for service members' kids.

Republicans also removed a provision that would

have expanded access to in vitro fertilization or IVF. And Democrats were against both of those actions.

Either way, it's been approved now. Enough Democrats eventually came around saying their votes were

justified because of all the good in the bill. The other must-pass bill up for debate this

week looks to be even more polarizing, and the stakes are even higher. So for weeks, congressional

leaders have been working on a deal, and they announced a bipartisan solution over the weekend

that would fund the government at current levels until March. Plus, that deal specifically

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