Overnight Defense: Mattis expected to recommend transgender troops stay in military | Mattis to advise Trump on decision this week | Dems knock Shulkin over response to travel report — Presented by Huntington Ingalls Industries

View in your browser     THE TOPLINE: Defense Secretary James Mattis will make his recommendation to President Trump any day now on what to do with the military's transgender service members. One report Thursday, from The Washington Post, said Mattis' recommendation will be to allow transgender troops to continue to serve, despite Trump's tweeted intention to ban transgender people from serving in any capacity. The Post cited two unnamed U.S. officials with the knowledge of the issue. Even if Mattis makes that recommendation, Trump could buck him and stick to his ban, which has been blocked by several courts as lawsuits against it make their way through the system. Read more about the report here.   WHAT THE PENTAGON SAYS: At her semi-weekly news briefing Thursday, chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters that Mattis' recommendation is coming this week. "The secretary will provide his recommendation to the president this week regarding transgender individuals and military service, and the president will announce his decision," she said at the top of the briefing. Asked later in the session about the delay -- the recommendation was due Wednesday -- White stressed it was a self-imposed deadline and said Mattis is taking his time due to the complexity of the issue. "This is a complex issue, and the secretary is taking his time to consider the information he has been given," White said. "It's an important issue, and, again, he sees all of his decisions through the lens of lethality. And as you said, it was a self-imposed deadline." Read more from White here.     DEMS: SHULKIN RESPONSE TO TRAVEL REPORT 'OVERLY DEFENSIVE': Four Democrats, including the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Thursday they are "troubled" by VA Secretary David Shulkin's "overly defensive" response to a scathing inspector general report about the secretary's trip to Europe last year. In a letter to Shulkin, the senators said he needs to officially tell the inspector general he will comply with all recommendations. "We have read the inspector general's (IG) report related to your international trip in the summer of 2017 and want to be clear about our disappointment in what was clearly a considerable lack of judgment," they wrote. "Further, we are troubled by the overly defensive response from you and Deputy Secretary [Thomas] Bowman as published in the report, which indicated a lack of understanding or appreciation for the high standard to which you are held as a Cabinet official. "To restore the trust of veterans, taxpayers and Congress, it is absolutely critical that you officially respond to the IG and confirm your immediate intention to comply with all five recommendations, to the fullest extent possible." Read more from the letter here.   PENCE BLASTS OLYMPICS COVERAGE: Vice President Pence on Thursday defended not standing for the unified Korea team at the Olympics opening ceremony while criticizing the media for its "fawning" coverage of the North Korea delegation. The Hill's Ben Kamisar reports from Pence's Conservative Political Action Conference speech:  "For all the media fawning over the sister of the North Korean dictator, I think it's important that every American knows who this person is and what she's done," Pence said at the an annual conservative gathering outside of Washington, D.C. "The sister of Kim Jong Un is a central pillar of the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet," he added. "An evil family clique that brutalizes, subjugates, starves and imprisons its 25 million people." Read more here.   OVERSIGHT DEM PUSHES WHITE HOUSE OVER NIGER AMBUSH: The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is pushing for more information on the October ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead. In a letter to committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) asks him to join in requesting documents from the White House. "Since you refuse to seek a briefing from the White House, I now request that you at least join me in requesting documents from the White House on the deadly ambush in Niger -- a step you took without hesitation when you served as the chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi," Cummings wrote in the letter to Gowdy, dated Wednesday. "When Congress investigates deadly attacks against U.S. service members overseas, our actions should be conducted without regard to political considerations -- they should not intensify when the president is a Democrat but then virtually evaporate when he is a Republican." At issue is the Oct. 4 ambush in Niger that killed Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson and Dustin Wright and Sgt. La David Johnson. The incident left lawmakers shocked, with several admitting they were unaware the United States had any troops in the West African country, and elicited a wave of controversy in how President Trump interacted with Johnson's widow. Read more here.         SPONSORED CONTENT     A message from Huntington Ingalls Industries:   Ingalls Shipbuilding is ready to start serial production on the future of amphibious warships: LPD 30. Serial production today = savings & strength for America. Learn more at Huntington Ingalls Industries. .       ICYMI: -- The Hill: Kremlin ally behind Russia troll farm tied to mercenaries in Syria: report -- The Hill: Pentagon weighing McMaster's return to military: report -- The Hill: Opinion: Belichick rules: Military officer to Congress -- Do your job! -- The Hill: Opinion: The hunt for spies: A lesson in politics and law from the Cold War   Please send tips and comments to Rebecca Kheel, rkheel@thehill.com, and Ellen Mitchell, emitchell@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill, @Rebecca_H_K, @EllenMitchell23         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Defense Newsletters     Forward Defense Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.