The pinnacle of the Home Democratic Caucus is sending an early message to his troops heading into the 119th Congress: Attendance can be essential given the razor-tight margins within the decrease chamber.
“It’s important for every member to come to work and to do their job. That’s what we’re telling our caucus,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) stated throughout a press briefing within the Capitol.
“Their attendance is incredibly important, and the work that we do here is important, and pushing back against Republican overreach is potentially something that we have to do next year,” he continued. “And in order to do that, we’re going to need them coming” to Washington.
Whereas Democrats usually fared poorly on this yr’s elections — dropping the Senate and White Home whereas failing to flip the Home — the social gathering outperformed the highest of the ticket within the decrease chamber, the place GOP leaders can have only a spare 220 to 215 benefit within the subsequent Congress.
That skinny benefit will get even thinner within the early a part of subsequent yr, as Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) are set to hitch the Trump administration, whereas former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — who received reelection final month — has already resigned forward of his failed bid to steer the Justice Division in Trump’s second time period.
These shifts will depart Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who’s anticipated to maintain the gavel within the subsequent Congress, with a hairline 217 to 215 majority for a number of months of 2025, when President-elect Trump is hoping to make use of the GOP majorities in Congress to maneuver an bold 100-day agenda that features a sweeping extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
The tiny cushion means GOP leaders must obtain excellent unity amongst Republican lawmakers with the intention to go their partisan agenda, since even a single defection would result in a tie — 216 to 216 — which spells failure below Home guidelines.
The maths adjustments, nevertheless, if there are Democratic absences, which might decrease the edge Republicans would wish to go their payments, thereby padding their cushion to permit extra GOP defections.
It’s that situation that Aguilar and different Democratic leaders are already combating to keep away from by encouraging each member to be within the chamber when hot-button laws hits the ground. The Democratic Caucus chairman stated he’s sympathetic to lawmakers who’re affected by severe sicknesses, together with a number of with most cancers, however rapidly emphasised that these members volunteered to hunt reelection, even figuring out of their well being troubles.
“That’s life, but members also ran for these jobs,” Aguilar stated. Members ran for these jobs and had been reelected figuring out that that was what they had been experiencing. And in the event that they requested their voters to ship them to D.C. to do work, my expectation is that they’ll come to D.C. to do work.
“That is how I method it.”
