Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to fund individual agencies and reopen at least some parts of the federal government to place more pressure on Trump and Senate Republicans.
House Democrats did exactly that today, but you might say it doesn't matter.
The House bill, which passed 240-179 with only a handful of Republicans supporting it, would restore funding for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, two of the agencies that have been without funding since Dec. 22 amid the standoff over the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill provides $35.9 billion in discretionary funding, $6 billion above Trump’s budget request and $601 million above the fiscal year 2018 enacted level.
Now, you might say this doesn't matter, at least not for the moment, because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has adjourned the Senate until Monday without holding a vote on anything.
Trump tells us there's a "national emergency" on the southern border, but it's apparently not dire enough to keep the Senate in session through the weekend.
Because the Senate will not take up a funding bill this weekend, our current government shutdown will set a record as the longest government shutdown in our history. The previous record holder for the longest shutdown was the shutdown of December 1995 through January 1996 engineered by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The Republican party is not a governing party.