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There have been two causes many feared a partial government shutdown this week. The primary is that Congress didn’t have time to finish troublesome work on pending appropriations payments, and the second was that Republican leaders mentioned they had no intention of approving one other stopgap spending measure.
One thing needed to give. On this occasion, it was Home GOP leaders abandoning their earlier opposition to a short lived spending invoice. NBC Information reported:
Congress despatched a short-term funding invoice to President Joe Biden’s desk Thursday, averting a partial authorities shutdown this weekend and shopping for lawmakers extra time to fund federal companies by way of September.
Lawmakers are, in fact, nonetheless coping with the bifurcated mannequin Home Speaker Mike Johnson prefers. With this in thoughts, Congress will now have till March 8 — one week from at present — to approve six pending appropriations payments. The brand new deadline for the remaining spending measures is March 22.
At that time, the Home and Senate can get to work specializing in the subsequent fiscal yr.
However earlier than the political world strikes on, it’s price having a look on the vote tallies on the short-term funding invoice (known as a “continuing resolution,” or “CR”). At a Capitol Hill press convention after the measure cleared the Home, Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries took a second to remind his Republican colleagues of a element they most likely discovered inconvenient.
“Once again,” the New York Democrat said, “Democrats have demonstrated our willingness to work together, do the right thing by the American people and provide the overwhelming majority of votes necessary to get things done.”
Jeffries had a degree. The ultimate tally within the Democratic-led Senate was 77 to 13, with far-right GOP senators voting in opposition, however the vote within the Republican-led Home was much more attention-grabbing: The invoice handed 320 to 99, with Democrats offering 207 of the votes wanted to advance the laws.
In different phrases, it’s Republicans who management the chamber, and it was Republican leaders who agreed to the phrases to keep away from the shutdown they threatened, nevertheless it was members of the Democratic minority that supplied almost two-thirds of the votes wanted to cross the invoice.
This legislative dynamic — Republicans counting on Democrats to control — occurs much more than GOP leaders wish to admit.
A few month in the past, for instance, the Home thought of a bipartisan compromise on tax coverage, which was endorsed by the Home Republican management. It was however Democrats who provided most of the votes to pass it.
Two weeks earlier, a invoice to forestall a partial authorities shutdown cleared the House with 314 votes, however roughly two-thirds of these votes came from the House Democratic minority.
The circumstances have gotten routine. Final September, to forestall a authorities shutdown, it was Democrats who provided most of the votes. Two months later, once more to forestall a authorities shutdown, Republicans additionally relied on Democratic votes.
In the course of the mid-November debate on that invoice, Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois joked during floor remarks, “Next week, Americans will gather around their dinner tables and share what they’re thankful for. I hope my Republican colleagues will use that moment to reflect on how lucky you are to work with us House Democrats.”
A month later, when the Home wanted to cross the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA), Democrats once more provided a majority of the votes.
And when Republicans threatened to crash the economic system on goal by leveraging the debt ceiling, it was — you guessed it — Democrats who cast most of the votes to cross the bipartisan resolution.
As 2023 got here to an finish, Axios highlighted the underappreciated sample: “Republicans may hold the House majority, but Democratic yeas outnumbered GOP votes on every major bill that landed on President Biden’s desk this year.”
As 2024 advances, the sample continues.
When John Boehner was a Republican Home speaker, he too discovered himself dependent on Democrats when his far-right members didn’t need to govern. Throughout Paul Ryan’s tenure, it happened some more. When Kevin McCarthy did the identical factor, it contributed to the intraparty revolt that value him his gavel.
And now, right here we're, watching Speaker Johnson do the identical factor.
This put up updates our related earlier coverage.
