BUDGET/POLITICS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Congress approved a measure Monday [1-22-18] to fund the government for about three weeks and halt a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats accepted GOP leaders’ assurance that they would bring an immigration bill to the floor in the coming weeks.
The House, as expected, then followed suit and approved the bill, 266-150. President Donald Trump signed the bill Monday night, effectively ending the shutdown.
The agreement will keep the federal government running through Feb. 8, but did little to resolve the underlying policy fights over immigration and government-spending levels and doesn’t preclude a similar shutdown next month.
The deal also opened a rift in the Democratic Party between a left flank that wanted to hold out now for an agreement on the young immigrants known as Dreamers and a more centrist group eager to reopen the government and work out a bipartisan compromise.
The Senate easily mustered the support needed to cross a 60-vote threshold on a parliamentary move to advance the legislation, and then later passed the funding bill itself. Both tallies were 81-18, with two Republicans joining 15 Democrats and one independent in opposing the measures.”
-Kristina Peterson, Janet Hook, and Natalie Andrews, “Congress Passes Three-Week Spending Bill to End Shutdown,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 22, 2018 09:22pm