This is AP News Minute.

The House has rejected a plan to extend a Social Security payroll tax cut for two months. Republican members are instead demanding that the Senate return to negotiate an extension for the entire year. President Barack Obama called the Senate's version the only viable way to prevent a tax increase on January 1st.

The top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq is back on U.S. soil, welcomed home by his wife and the president. General Lloyd Austin returned with the U.S. Forces-Iraq flag to bring a symbolic conclusion to the war.

Federal investigators say the pilot of a plane that crashed on a New Jersey highway talked with the air traffic controller about icing shortly before hand. The plane crashed Tuesday morning at Interstate 287, killing five.

And the National Menorah has been lit near the White House. The ceremony marking the first night of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah dates back to 1979.

I'm Matt Friedman, the Associated Press with AP News Minute.