House Republicans succeeded late Wednesday in harnessing the special budget power to advance up to $75 billion for the immigration enforcement agencies Democrats refuse to fund without new guardrails — bringing Congress closer to ending the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
The vote was held open for more than five hours as lawmakers sought concessions from Speaker Mike Johnson around the farm bill, using the budget resolution as leverage. Finally, the chamber voted 214-212-1 to approve the fiscal blueprint the Senate advanced last week, unlocking the ability to draft and pass a party-line package containing tens of billions of dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
Remember when Democrats were the majority party and “couldn’t do that because of the precedent it would set”?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Dems love finding four Republican Senators to negotiate with for six months, giving away half the farm, and still watching their bill fail in the House. More or less what happened with the Immigration Bill under Obama. Nearly killed his healthcare reform bill when he had majorities in both branches.
I’ll be curious to see whether Schumer brings back all the old filibuster rules, assuming Dems can manage to flip the Senate in a massive blue wave year. Given the current state of play, it would be very funny to see a House seat landslide, while Dems are stubbornly stuck at 50/50 because Senate seats are so comically noncompetitive. Then we can find out how open JD Vance and John Thune are to negotiating with Hakeem Jeffries.
If Democrats end up winning the senate, I think there’s a very real possibility that Schumer gets ousted as majority leader, because a LOT of people are pretty clearly sick of his shit.
I will give you 10:1 odds that Schumer is still (nominally) leading the Senate in 2027, baring a serious medical incident.
I’m not saying it’s a sure thing.
But I’m also saying that him being the Majority Leader is not a sure thing.
This is actually the same method Democrats used to pass the Affordable Care Act, which was a huge step forward
It’s been time for a while but every time I look behind me no one’s there
Controlled opposition