UPDATE (Sept. 25, 2024, 6:38 p.m. ET): On Wednesday, the Senate voted 78-18 to pass the stopgap funding bill and avert a government shutdown, sending the measure to President Joe Biden.
A couple of weeks ago, facing the possibility of a Republican-imposed government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared an underappreciated point with reporters. “Democrats are temporarily in the minority but have repeatedly governed as if we are in the majority, because we recognize that our job is to deliver for the American people,” the New York Democrat explained.
Two weeks later, the accuracy of Jeffries’ assessment rang true anew. NBC News reported:
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a funding bill to avert a government shutdown next week after it removed a proposal demanded by Donald Trump that would require Americans nationwide to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. The vote was 341-82, with all opposition coming from Republicans. House Republican leaders, facing defections within their ranks, relied heavily on Democratic votes to approve the short-term measure.
It was just last week when the House GOP leadership tried a far-right approach to preventing a shutdown, tying spending cuts to a far-right election scheme called the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. That bill failed in humiliating fashion, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson to turn to a backup plan.
This week, we learned that the backup plan was, for all intents and purposes, to give up entirely.
The temporary spending bill — called a “continuing resolution,” or “CR” — now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, which is expected to approve it quickly.
But as the dust settles on this unnecessary drama, it’s worth appreciating just how frequently House Republican leaders have been forced to rely on the Democratic minority to govern.
Five months ago, for example, Congress passed a long-sought security-aid package, but in order to advance the legislation, Johnson and his leadership team had no choice but to disregard the wishes of their far-right members and partner with the Democratic minority — which provided more than two-thirds of the votes needed to pass the bill.
This was not an isolated incident. Ten days earlier, the House reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it was the Democratic minority that provided a majority of the votes. A few weeks before that, the House passed a bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year and Democrats provided nearly two-thirds of the votes.
A month before that, House Republican leaders endorsed a stopgap spending measure and relied on Democrats to pass it. A month earlier, the House considered a bipartisan compromise on tax policy, which was endorsed by the House GOP leadership. It was nevertheless Democrats who provided most of the votes to pass it.
Two weeks earlier, a bill to prevent a partial government shutdown cleared the House, but roughly two-thirds of those votes came from the House Democratic minority.
The circumstances have become a staple of the current Congress. A year ago this week, to prevent a government shutdown, it was Democrats who provided most of the votes on a must-pass bill. Two months later, again to prevent a government shutdown, Republicans also relied on Democratic votes.








