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- A measure that would have prevented a few-week government shutdown was passed by the House and sent to Biden’s desk.
- For the fourth time in the history of measures that must pass, more Democrats than Republicans voted in favour of it.
- GOP leaders have continuously needed Democratic votes even though they are in charge of the House.
A bill temporarily extending government financing was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday night, with a significantly higher percentage of Democratic votes than Republican votes.
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Even though Republicans officially hold a narrow majority in the chamber, this is the fourth time something similar has occurred this year, which is why it sounds familiar.
“Who holds the majority or who is in the speaker’s chair does not matter,” a furious Representative Chip Roy of Texas said before to the vote on the floor. “We keep doing the same stupid stuff.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson helped negotiate the short-term financing package, which was approved 314–108 with the support of 107 Republicans and 207 Democrats.
Just two Democrats voted against it, compared to 106 Republicans who abstained.
The law, which was comfortably approved by the Senate on Thursday, is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk in advance of Saturday’s planned partial government shutdown.
It also succeeded in spite of last-minute complaints from the right wing, including attempts by members of the House Freedom Caucus and others to tack on strict immigration laws to the necessary legislation.
Similar to how they felt about McCarthy, the right wing of the Republican Party has been increasingly incensed at Johnson, charging that he is not utilising necessary legislation to forward their extreme agendas, even if Democrats are still in control of the Senate and the White House.
There are now two deadlines for lawmakers to fund the full government for the remainder of the year: March 1 and March 8.
Republicans continue to bear a smaller share of the burden of governance than Democrats.
Chaos and a lack of productivity have been the main themes in the year since Republicans took over the House, especially since the summer.
Republicans have frequently demonstrated that they are unable to manage must-pass legislation without the assistance of Democrats, since they are split between moderate members and hardliners who want to implement radical right-wing policy changes.
When then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated a plan to expand the debt ceiling until the 2024 election, that dynamic was first seen at the very end of May. A default on the nation’s debt caused by a breach of the debt ceiling would have resulted in a severe fiscal disaster.
That bill was approved by the House 314–117, with 165 Democrats and 149 Republicans voting in favour of it. At that time, the difference wasn’t all that big since both Republicans and Democrats had issues with some parts of the agreement.The end of
September then arrived.
McCarthy introduced a measure to extend government financing for two more months in the face of an impending government shutdown due to a budget deadline.
With 209 Democrats and 126 Republicans voting in favour of it, the vote count was 335 to 91. Stated differently, all Republicans who voted against government financing did so, with the exception of one.
The next week, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida pushed a vote to remove McCarthy, and the House was thrown into disarray for the most of October. That vote ultimately proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The House was forced to pass another short-term continuing resolution in November after wasting half of the time they had allotted to pass government funding bills. This time, however, there was a catch: the resolution would be “laddered,” meaning that lawmakers would have two deadlines, roughly one week apart, for different departments of the federal government.
With 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans voting in favour, the measure passed 336–95. There were only two Democrats in the opposition.
Hardliners extended some leniency to Johnson, who was still relatively new, despite the fact that McCarthy had recently been removed for doing the same thing—putting a clear extension of government financing up for a vote.
But this time, the right was vociferous and seething with resentment at the Louisiana Republican; some even hinted at a possible vote to remove him from office.
“Our Speaker, Mr. Johnson, said he was the most conservative speaker we’ve ever had, and yet here we are, putting this bill on the floor,” said. In a floor statement before to the vote, Representative Eli Crane of Arizona stated that the circumstances are what “led to us to vacate Speaker McCarthy in the first place.”
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