NEW YEAR, SAME OLD ANXIETY: It’s early in the process, but the prospect of a deal to fully fund the Pentagon seems as elusive as ever as the Jan. 19 expiration of the latest continuing resolution is just two weeks away. Yesterday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney met for an hour with Republican and Democratic leaders in the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Both sides expressed guarded optimism and promised to keep at it in the coming days.

But there were signs that the deal is still far out of reach. Democrats insisted on language in the spending bill that would protect children of illegal immigrants by reinstating the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Trump rescinded.