President Donald Trump is rapidly losing the shutdown fight he started, and Republicans are fleeing from him.
On Friday ten Republicans bucked their leadership and joined House Democrats in voting for a bill to re-open several federal agencies.
Also on Friday, Senate Republicans filed a bill that would permanently ban federal government shutdowns forever, making it impossible for any president to take the nation hostage to fulfill, for example, a ridiculous campaign promise.
The Hill reports the House bill is “the fourth measure approved by the Democratic House this week. Democrats are voting on a series of bills to open up the parts of the government closed since Dec. 22, which has left about 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay.”
Meanwhile, many Republicans are making clear they oppose what appears to be President Trump’s plan: to declare a national emergency and siphon funds from disaster relief projects in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, and California to pay for his wall.
(Not all of them have offered honorable reasons for opposing the move.)
Among those opposed to declaring a national emergency is the powerful, far right House Freedom Caucus.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is actually the one person who holds all the cards in the shutdown. He has stayed mostly silent since the shutdown started, and is refusing to exercise that power.
Leader McConnell could allow the House bills to be voted on by the duly-elected Member of the Senate, and force President Trump to decide to sign or veto them. There are sufficient votes in the Senate, many reports say, to override a Trump veto. McConnell refuses to allow the Senators the right to vote.
Saturday the Trump shutdown will become the longest in the nation’s history. It began almost four weeks ago, December 22, when President Trump controlled both Houses of Congress.