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The House voted overwhelmingly, again, to reopen part of government on Friday, with the appropriations bills for Interior, the EPA, national parks, and other programs. Once again, 10 Republicans defected, joining all the Democrats in passing the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of course, is continuing to prop up the unindicted co-conspirator and will refuse to bring this bill to the floor along with all the others passed by the House, continuing to maintain that it's not his job to go against the president. Meanwhile, some of his own conference are getting just a little pissed that they're trapped on this sinking ship.
They had one small outlet, the opportunity to authorize back pay for the furloughed federal employees. That happened in a unanimous voice vote Thursday afternoon. On Friday, the House took that bill up as well, passing it 411-7. Yes, there were seven Republicans who voted against authorizing the back pay for the 800,000 public servants who missed their first paycheck of the shutdown today.
Here they are, followed by the total number of federal employees in their districts as of the last Congress.
- Justin Amash MI-03 — 3,893
- Andy Biggs AZ-05 — 5,225
- Paul Gosar AZ-04 — 3,661
- Glenn Grothman WI-06 — 4,009
- Thomas Massie KY-04 — 8,177
- Chip Roy TX-21 — 14,229
- Ted Yoho FL-03 — 9,756
Not all of those public servants are currently furloughed, of course, since the entire government isn't shut down. But they'll be glad to know how their representatives feel about their service and their livelihoods for future reference.