No Shutdown: Congress Passes Two-Year Budget Deal

Update: just before 6am ET on Friday, the House joined the Senate in passing the budget deal that would fund the government through March 23, sending legislation to President Trump that would end a brief shutdown of the government that began at midnight.

The bill passed in a 240-186 vote despite opposition from most Democrats, who had sought a firmer commitment from Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that he will bring immigration legislation to the floor for a vote that would protect immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation. House Democrats just barely made up for the defections on the GOP side. A total of 73 Democrats voted for the legislation, while 67 Republicans voted against it.

As The Hill reports, Democrats tried to make GOP leaders sweat. They held out their votes until the final minutes, until it was clear that a majority of the GOP conference supported it. At first, Republicans were the only ones casting votes as Democrats sat largely in silence. Then the "no" votes ominously began piling up, only for enough Democrats to eventually neutralize the GOP defections.

Gamesmanship from both parties was repeatedly on display, with Democrats warning Republicans they could not count on the minority delivering votes. Republicans, for their part, repeatedly played it cool in public, offering confidence the measure would pass despite opposition from conservative Republicans who said the new spending added too much to the deficit.

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