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Update 5:50 p.m.: And President Obama has weighed in to congratulate Congress for, well, doing what he told them to do this morning. "This is good news, just in time for the holidays..." he said in a statement. "And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you." Mele Kalikimaka, Mr. President.

Update 5:35 p.m. Boehner gave a press conference Thursday evening reiterating his office's statement (which reiterated this afternoon's reports) that the House would pass the Senate's two month extension on the payroll tax cut with a couple small modifications. He also reiterated his party's hope to peg a one year extension to the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Canada. So, don't expect an easy compromise for the year long extension in a few months. Asked if House Republicans had "caved," he didn't answer an explicit yes or no but said the standoff "may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world but I tell you what, I think our members waged a good fight able to come to an agreement, and we were able to fix what came out of the Senate." Translation: Yeah, sort of.