Congressional negotiators announced late Tuesday they had reached
agreement on a “framework” for FY2023 spending, clearing the way for
passage of an omnibus appropriations package before Christmas.

Appropriators are not expected to reveal detailed top-line spending
levels until a bill is written and filed, but negotiators had largely
settled on a $858 billion defense budget while haggling over the
nondefense number. The parties had been roughly $26 billion apart, with
Republicans refusing to exceed the $1.65 trillion in total discretionary
spending in President Joe Biden's budget request.

And more than eight years ago, President Barack Obama stood before
dozens of African leaders and made promises at the opening session for
the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the first of its kind. The summit, it
was hoped, would be a jumping-off point for stronger ties between the
United States and the continent. Fast-forward eight years later: Biden
is hosting a sequel, and he is likely to give very similar remarks. 

But the situation on the continent has only grown more dire, with global
crises such as climate change, Covid-19 and the fallout from Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine all hitting the continent especially hard. And after
four years of Donald Trump at best neglecting and at worst denigrating
the continent, this summit is something of a Hail Mary pass to improve
relations. 

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Raghu Manavalan is the Host and Senior Editor of POLITICO's Playbook
Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.