In its first substantive order of business after the new Congress was sworn in on Thursday, House Democrats passed two bills to re-open the federal government which has been partially shut down for weeks because of Senate Republicans' acquiescence to Donald Trump's demand that any funding measures include $5 billion in funding for his alleged "wall" that he wants to build along the border with Mexico. One bill would fund a half-dozen currently shuttered federal agencies through Sept. 30; the other would pay for the Department of Homeland Security to operate through Feb. 8. Neither, of course, contained any wall money.
The legislation passed with support from all Democrats, and both bills also attracted a few Republicans. The broader measure won votes from seven Republicans: Fred Upton (MI-06), Pete King (NY-02), Elise Stefanik (NY-21), John Katko (NY-24), Greg Walden (OR-02), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), and Will Hurd (TX-23). Stefanik, Katko, Fitzpatrick, and Hurd also voted for the Homeland Security bill, as did Chris Smith (NJ-04).
Katko, Fitzpatrick, and Hurd: That's a law-firm-esque trio you should get used to hearing, since they're the last three House Republicans who sit in districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. They all faced tough races last year, and they're all particularly vulnerable again in 2020. Upton's district is redder, but he falls into the same bucket, while King faced a closer-than-expected race, too (and is often smart about knowing when to buck his party).
The others are harder to figure. Walden is a firm member of the GOP establishment who not that long ago was NRCC chair and sits in a comfortably conservative district. After the 2018 blue wave, Smith is now the last Republican member of New Jersey's House delegation, but his district is also solidly red. The same is true of Stefanik's seat in upstate New York, but she's been publicly feuding with party leadership lately, so her dissent makes a little more sense. There might have been even more defectors, but Mike Pence reportedly lobbied individual members to implore them to vote "no."
Before the House got to work on new legislation, Democrats also passed a preliminary measure to establish the chamber's rules of operation for the next two years, something every new Congress starts with. These rules include a number of major changes to how Republicans conducted business over the last eight years, but regardless of their substance, it's customary for all members of the minority party to vote against the majority's rules package.
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That didn't happen. For the first time in 18 years, there were three crossover votes: Katko, Fitzpatrick, and Tom Reed (NY-23). Once again, seeing Katko and Fitzpatrick on this roster isn't too surprising, but the presence of Reed's name is. Though he also represents a reliably red district in upstate New York, he seems to be dissatisfied with his party lately: In November, he suggested he might even vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker in the name of reform.
While he didn't do that, he did the next worst thing. It's the sort of behavior you typically only see from a Republican who either wants to court a primary challenge or wants to retire. Incidentally, the last person to vote for the other side's rules package was none other than Jim Traficant, the berserker Ohio Democrat who, the following year, also gained the distinction of being the last member of Congress to get expelled by his peers.