Nancy Pelosi was not much of a presence in the debates that got the CR deal. The deal was hammered out without top House Democrats. But when the short-term deal came to the floor – it needed to pass, in order for the rest of the deal to be hammered out and voted on later – Democrats mostly voted for it, allowing 28 Republicans to bail and vote against it.
If more Republicans bail on the CR, some number of Democrats will need to support it to save it. Pelosi did not say whether she’d be one of them.
“I’m studying it,” she said to reporters on Thursday. She did not feel a responsibility to vote for it. “The House Democrats were not part of that agreement,” she said. “I wouldn’t call it a deal, I would call it an agreement.”
Because of that, she said that votes weren’t being sought for the deal.
“We have not whipped it,” she said. “We have not encouraged people one way or another. It’s one of those subjects that there is no agreement on.”
She clearly didn’t relish the discussion; she suggested at one point that “they seem to think they have the votes; you all seem less confident than they do.”
There’s really no sense on the Hill that this deal is going to fail. There’ll be more Republican anger, but not the kind of anger that can sink it.
