Copyright The Boston Globe
The new funding carries most federal agencies only until Jan. 30. And after a contentious 43-day shutdown, the political atmosphere in Washington is as toxic as ever. “It only bought peace until the end of January,” lamented Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat. She was among all but six House Democrats to vote against the measure because it failed to included the party’s chief reason for holding out during the shutdown: extending enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance that expire on Dec. 31. Lawmakers still have to address the huge increases in monthly premiums that millions of people who depend on the subsidy face next year. At the same time, the House and Senate must agree on government spending for most agencies for the rest of this fiscal year or the nation faces another shutdown on Feb. 1. On top of that, all this comes after the release of new emails Wednesday about the relationship between Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein further roiled the already poisonous political atmosphere. The partisan animosity was clear as Democrats and Republicans in the House were in Washington together for the first time in weeks. They’d been officially out of session since Sept. 19, when House Republicans joined by only one Democrat—Jared Golden of Maine—approved a short-term spending bill ahead of the Sept. 30 expiration of government funding. Then House Speaker Mike Johnson called a recess. The Louisiana Republican kept the House officially closed for weeks while the Senate wrestled with the bill. Johnson’s decision infuriated Democrats, and it didn’t take long for the sniping to begin when the House Rules Committee met Tuesday night to lay the groundwork for Wednesday’s vote. “Long time, no see. I hardly recognize you guys. Where the hell have you been?” Representative Jim McGovern of Worcester, the top Democrat on the committee said to his Republican colleagues. “I’m glad that you survived your nice two-month paid vacation while Democrats stayed in Washington to try to end this shutdown.” After another Democrat made a similar reference, the chair of the Rules Committee, Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, had enough. “I am sick and tired of hearing you all say we had an eight-week vacation,” she snapped. “I worked every day.” Johnson summoned House members to Washington on Monday after the Senate passed a revised spending bill with the help of eight Democrats. Several lawmakers had to battle flight delays caused by the shutdown to make it back to town. Others opted for different modes of transportation. McGovern took the train from Massachusetts to make sure he’d arrive in time for Tuesday night’s Rules Committee meeting. Some members carpooled, while Representative Derrick Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican, hopped on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle for the long ride back to the Capitol. After rolling into Washington Wednesday afternoon, he told the Globe that the House vote was an important first step. “You’ve got to start somewhere,” Van Orden said outside the House chamber. “A journey of a thousand miles is started with one step and the journey of 950 miles on your motorcycle starts in your own driveway.” Like Foxx, he bristled at the suggestion he and his Republican colleagues were on vacation since Sept. 19. “I‘m just glad to be back working for the American people. I mean, let me clarify...when I say back and working for American people, I mean in Washington,” Van Orden said. But House members didn’t have to stay in Washington for long. After declaring Monday that “there’ll be long days and long nights here for the foreseeable future to make up for all this lost time that was imposed upon us,” Johnson opted to send lawmakers home again after the vote Wednesday night. They’ll return next week, but then are scheduled to be off again the following week for Thanksgiving. Representative Gabe Amo, a Rhode Island Democrat, said Johnson is afraid to keep Republicans in Washington because some rank-and-file members might get together with Democrats and actually craft a deal on the ACA subsidies. “He doesn’t want them here talking to Democrats,” Amo said. “He certainly doesn’t want them in front of cameras. And now they’ve got to deal with the Epstein problem. So good luck to the speaker.” The Epstein controversy flared anew Wednesday after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails linking Trump to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said the newly released emails — including one from Epstein in 2011 that said Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim — have raised many more questions. “Jeffrey Epstein is talking about, I think, pretty serious stuff, disturbing stuff, in these emails,” Garcia told reporters. The White House has said Trump committed no wrongdoing. Trump’s connection to Epstein — and the administration’s about-face on his campaign promise to release all the federal government’s files on Epstein — is an issue that has refused to die. The impending end of the shutdown provided another boost. On Wednesday, Johnson finally swore in Representative Adelita Grijalva on Wednesday. She won an Arizona special election on Sept. 23 to replace her father, who died in March. But Johnson refused to swear her in while the House was out of session. Grijalva had promised to provide the final signature needed on a discharge petition forcing Johnson to hold a vote on bipartisan legislation calling for the Trump administration to release all the government files related to Epstein. “Speaker Johnson purposefully obstructed my swearing in by canceling vote after vote, and the Epstein files discharge petition sat one signature short,” she told reporters after being sworn in, which was greeted by cheers and applause from her Democratic colleagues on the House floor. “With my signing, we move one step closer to the truth, the truth that they will try to deny, but that survivors deserve their day of justice, and the American people demand it.” Wednesday’s shutdown vote came after eight Senate Democrats broke ranks and voted with Republicans to re-open the government Monday. The move outraged many in the Democratic base, and they directed much of their anger at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Although the New York Democrat voted against ending the shutdown, the defection of those eight Senate Democrats was seen by his critics as a sign of weak leadership. Representative Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, has called for Schumer to step down. “This wasn’t about making health care an issue, this was about making sure people’s premiums aren’t going up,” he told reporters Wednesday “For some Americans, this is going to be a death sentence. So we need to meet the moral moment, and we didn’t.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York vowed Wednesday to fight on. House Democrats introduced a discharge petition to force a vote on a three-year extension of ACA subsidies. They’ll need at least four House Republicans to join them. “Our promise to the American people is that we are in this fight until we win this fight. For all of you,” Jeffries said on the Capitol steps before the vote, with about 80 cheering House Democrats arrayed behind him. “Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save healthcare.” But House Republicans were the one cheering by the end of the night with the final vote to end the shutdown without having made any concessions. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised a vote in mid-December on a still-to-be-drafted Democratic bill to extend the expiring healthcare subsidies. Johnson has made no such commitment. Michigan Representative Lisa McLain, a member of the House Republican leadership, said she was hopeful another shutdown wouldn’t happen early next year, asserting Democrats lost the fight. “I am an optimist by nature,” she said, “so I’m pretty confident that the Democrats don’t want to go through this again.”
