By MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )

NOTABLES

• HOUSE APPROVES OBAMA'S PLAN, SENATE VOTES TODAY: The House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve President Obama's request to authorize the U.S. military to train and equip vetted Syrian opposition forces in the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS, sending the bill onto the Senate where it will be considered today, ABC's JOHN PARKINSON notes. By a vote of 273 to 156, the House easily passed the McKeon amendment, which was attached to a stop-gap spending measure to fund the government through Dec. 11. Seventy-one Republicans and 85 Democrats opposed the vote on the Title X authority while 159 Republicans and 114 Democrats voted in favor of it. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure this evening.

• THE FINE PRINT: The authorization to aid Syrian opposition forces will expire at the latest by Dec. 11, PARKINSON notes. If Congress clears a National Defense Authorization Act before that date, the authorization could expire even earlier. Yesterday, the House also voted to approve an underlying temporary stop-gap spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 11. While the prospects of a government shutdown aren't completely eliminated until the Senate votes to clear the measure, the bipartisan vote is a strong signal Congress won't create another fiscal crisis ahead of the midterm elections.

• WHAT THREE IRAQ VETERANS SAID: During yesterday's debate on the House floor three Iraq veterans - two Republicans and one Democrat - who served multiple tours in Iraq all spoke out against the plan to fight ISIS, ABC's JEFF ZELENY notes. Their reasons are different, but their experience in Iraq informs their views and their objections to arming Syrian rebels. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii: "This proposed strategy actually reflects a lack of commitment to really destroy ISIL and the other Islamic extremist groups that we're at war with." Rep. Chris Gibson, R-NY: "We have not set conditions for actions in Syria. There is no credible partner there; there is no political partner there, and that's really the issue." Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.: "We need to burn the Islamic State to the ground and you don't do that by training Islamic Syrians. You don't crush the Islamic State by training Islamists to fight other Islamists."

THE ROUNDTABLE:

ABC's RICK KLEIN: "Vote of conscience." The term has been ignored and/or abused for so long that it's fallen into disrepair, or at least that zone where it can't be used without air quotes. But Wednesday's vote on authorizing aid for Syrian rebels - a critical component of President Obama's ISIS strategy - revealed a new era in national-security politics on Capitol Hill. You had liberals and conservatives joining in opposition, splits inside the Congressional Black Caucus, and veterans of recent wars providing fascinating first-hand insights. In the end, the House showed that rarest of things - bipartisanship - in giving the president what he asked for, in a vote that was rather lopsided, under the circumstances. For nearly 300 House members, this was the closest thing to a war vote they've ever taken. The fact that it was a "vote of conscience," on a matter this weighty, seems like something worth welcoming. Next up is the Senate, where conscience gets a little complicated with midterm and presidential politics.

ABC's JEFF ZELENY: The Senate is poised today to finish what the House started, giving authority to President Obama's plan to arm and train Syrian rebels. The alliances in the House vote yesterday were unlike those we usually see, with a liberal Democrats lining up with Hawkish Republicans to support the narrow escalation in the fight against ISIS. Of all the notable allegiances, it was striking that several Iraq war vets in Congress from both parties rose in opposition to the president's plan. The voice of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard echoed in the chamber as she declared: "It's unrealistic, it will take way to long and the number of fighters trained will be way to small to be truly effective." Yet the politics were clear. Every member of the House running for a Senate seat, Democrats and Republican alike, supported the measure. It will pass the Senate today, but not without deep skepticism and perhaps a few surprising 'No' votes.

ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Vice President Joe Biden and a dozen nuns walk into a bus, it sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it was just another day on the road for the vice president. Biden may have traveled to Iowa, where presidents are tested, and he gave what at times sounded like a populist campaign speech, but the focus of the event was kicking off the Nuns on The Bus 36 city tour. Sister Simone Campbell and her fellow nuns are traveling across the country to get voters registered and spreading their message of social justice: increasing the minimum wage, a fairer shot for the middle class, and easier access to health care. Biden even said in his signature colorful style, "The Nuns on the Bus fought like the devil for health care." Campbell told ABC News about the first Catholic vice president's special relationship with the sisters, with Campbell saying he spoke to her about his "struggles in high school" and how without the nuns at his Catholic school there may not have been a VP Biden. "The nuns would tell him, 'You're smart Joey Biden, you're smart, you can do this.' And that gave him the self-esteem he doesn't think he would have otherwise because kids were picking on him." Watch more of our interview with Campbell and see the Nuns on the Bus Tour Bus: http://abcn.ws/1BODDzr

IN THE NOTE'S INBOX

THE SPEAKER SPEAKS. House Speaker John Boehner is scheduled to give a speech at the American Enterprise Institute today "on resetting America's economic foundation." Here's an excerpt of his remarks as prepared for delivery: "Washington's approach is so top-down, and the bureaucracy so lumbering, that the government is keeping us from where we need to be. Look at the state of things: flat wages, higher prices, a six-year slog to regain the jobs lost during the recession, and millions still asking, 'where are the jobs?' So we can do this the Washington way, move around some dirt, see what happens. Or we can lay a solid foundation for growth and mobility. … Bring these good-paying jobs home, get our workers off the sidelines. Build a culture of hard work and responsibility around them. Make America the best place to work, save and invest." Boehner's speech takes place at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.

BUZZ

with ABC's KIRSTEN APPLETON

OBAMA DOUBLES DOWN: NO 'GROUND WAR IN IRAQ.' Speaking to hundreds of military personnel on Wednesday, President Obama sought to reassure the people tasked with carrying out his new anti-terror strategy that "the American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission," ABC's MARY BRUCE reports. "As your commander-in-chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq," the president told troops packed into a gymnasium at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, after meeting with top commanders leading his new strategy to counter the threat of the militant group ISIS. "After a decade of massive ground deployment, it is more effective to use our unique capabilities in support of partners on the ground so they can secure their own countries' futures. And that's the only solution that will succeed over the long term," he said. As the U.S. seeks to build an international coalition of support, the president reiterated "this is not and will not be America's fight alone…We're not going to do this alone. And the one thing we have learned is that when we do things alone and the countries - the people of those countries aren't doing it for themselves, as soon as we leave we start getting the same problems. So we've got to do things different," he said. http://abcn.ws/1qLutBt

HAPPENING TODAY: President Obama welcomes President Poroshenko of Ukraine to the White House for the first time this afternoon after Poroshenko addresses a joint session of Congress in the morning. This afternoon, they hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office. ABC's MARY BRUCE notes that while Poroshenko is here hoping to get more US military assistance for the fight against the pro-Russian rebels, today's meeting is expected to be more about symbolism than substance. It's a show of support for the fledgling Ukrainian government and a strong message to Putin. As Josh Earnest said yesterday, "The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words - both in English and Russian."

WHY SUZE ORMAN BACKS ELIZABETH WARREN FOR PRESIDENT, NOT HILLARY CLINTON. CNBC TV host and finance expert Suze Orman just loves Sen. Elizabeth Warren - and she wants to tell everyone about it, according to ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI. Asked if she would vote for Warren over Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, Orman offered a hearty "yes" in front of an audience at Politico's "Solving for Y: Exploring Opportunities for the Next Generation" event, featuring both Orman and Warren, D-Mass, speaking on student debt. Although Orman said she thinks Clinton would make an excellent candidate for the Oval Office, the 63-year-old financial guru said she'd vote for Warren because she identifies with the struggle Warren is taking on. "Warren is my political voice," Orman said. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider for 2016?" Orman jokingly asked Warren, who just smiled. http://abcn.ws/1pjFV0E

BENGHAZI COMMITTEE PROBES STEPS TO IMPROVE DIPLOMATIC SECURITY. A little more than two years since four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, the Benghazi Select Committee held its first public hearing on Wednesday - examining the steps the Department of State has taken to improve diplomatic security around the world in the wake of the deadly attack, ABC's JOHN PARKINSON reports. Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the committee, pointed out that the Benghazi attack "was not the first time one of our facilities or our people have been attacked," citing Beirut, Kenya, and Tanzania as three instances when Americans were targeted overseas. He said it is incumbent on Congress to ensure steps are taken to prevent similar failures in the future. "We do not suffer from a lack of recommendations. We do suffer from a lack of implementing and enacting those recommendations, and that has to end," Gowdy, R-S.C., said. "To those who believe it is time to move on, to those who believe that there is nothing left to discover, that all the questions have been asked and answered and that we've learned all the lessons that there are to be learned, we have heard all of that before, and it was wrong then." http://abcn.ws/1uHSokz

BIDEN ROLLS INTO IOWA WITH NUNS ON A BUS. Three days after Hillary Clinton visited the presidential testing grounds of Iowa, Vice President Biden was right behind her with a populist speech that sounded at times like it was 2016, ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. Although this trip was an official White House visit, in Iowa the topic of presidential politics can't be avoided. Biden's address focused on raising the minimum wage and making life better and fairer for the middle class. He came to the Iowa Capitol to help launch a nationwide tour of the liberal group "Nuns on the Bus." The vice president joined about a dozen nuns on stage who are heading out their rolling nunnery on a 10 state, 36 city tour of the country registering voters and preaching their message of social justice. Biden, the nation's first Catholic vice president, noted his 12 years of Catholic education telling the crowd of about 300, "I was asked by the press why am I going out with Nuns on the Bus? I said because they are nuns. It's a simple proposition." http://abcn.ws/1qZnOCx

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

OBAMAS BEND BAN ON SELFIES FOR CUTE KIDS. Ever since President Obama inadvertently got in hot water for appearing in a sponsored Samsung selfie tweet with Big Papi, he and the first lady have largely avoided self-shot photos with fans in crowds. But on Wednesday, in separate cities, the president and first lady relaxed their rules, according to ABC's DEVIN DWYER. "I will tell you in advance that selfies are a little tough," Mr. Obama told members of Congress and their families gathered on the White House South Lawn for the annual Congressional Picnic. "I will make exceptions for little people, but you have to actually be little." The comment drew laughter, before the president quickly corrected himself: "And I mean young, I don't mean short." It's not known how many, if any, presidential selfies transpired at the picnic with children of lawmakers (the press corps was quickly ushered out). But we do know the first lady lent her likeness to at least one on Wednesday. http://abcn.ws/1yi4iGJ

WHO'S TWEETING?

@amieparnes: A look at Lisa Monaco, Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, and the role she plays in battling ISIS: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/218139-monaco-is-obamas-key-player-on-syria …

@DavidMDrucker: New Q poll in #cosen: Gardner(R) over Udall(D) 48% - 40% among LVs. "More than 1/3 are voting against Obama"

@ZekeJMiller: John Kerry's Wary Coalition http://ti.me/1qhffxP via @TIME

@politico: Are conservative policies the way forward in America's big cities? http://politi.co/1rcB4UF #WhatWorks

@rollcall: The 'Cory Booker of California' Leaps to Safer Ground http://roll.cl/1u9nwaS via @CahnEmily