In Today’s Times
- Yielding to a Congress anxious about using drones strikes to target and kill American terror suspects abroad like Anwar al-Awlaki, President Obama will share classified intelligence documents used to justify the policy with the Congressional Intelligence Committees. Michael D. Shear and Scott Shane write that the move is a response to lawmakers demanding that the administration lay out “the scope and limits of what the executive branch believes it has the power to do in national security matters,†but transparency advocates note that the memos were not being shared with the committees with jurisdiction over Pentagon strikes or over the Justice Department.
- Senate Democrats hope to produce a plan by the end of the week to delay or avoid nearly $1 trillion in federal spending cuts set to take effect in March. Jonathan Weisman and Elisabeth Bumiller explain the wrangling among lawmakers over the so-called sequester cuts, which are already having an impact on decision-making at the Pentagon and have put about one million jobs on the line.
- Karl Rove and his allies created the Conservative Victory Project to mount an aggressive effort to help Republicans rebuild their party and regain control of the Senate. But Jeff Zeleny explains that as Republican primaries begin to take shape ahead of the 2014 Congressional elections, Mr. Rove faces a backlash from conservative activists who see party strategists like him and his decision to back candidates in the primaries as part of the party’s problem.
- Adam Liptak writes that Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision to speak at a conference in April has put her in the thick of a long-running dispute over Yale University’s relationship with PepsiCo, the sponsor of the conference..
Happening in Washington
- Economic data expected on Thursday include weekly jobless claims and fourth-quarter productivity at 8:30 a.m., followed by weekly mortgage rates at 10 a.m. and consumer credit figures for December at 3 p.m.
- At 8 a.m., President Obama will speak at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Then, at 12:30 p.m., he will deliver remarks at the House Democrats’ retreat in Leesburg, Va.
- At 10 a.m., Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairmn of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee about an internal review of American facilities in Benghazi, Libya.
- John O. Brennan’s nomination to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency will be the subject of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at 2:30 p.m..
