Katie Edmondson

I was sitting up at the Capitol and lo and behold, the Senate Appropriations Committee starts putting out legislative text that actually contains the details of these policy wins the Democrats had secured.

And so I'm kind of tearing through these bills, right, trying to read exactly what's in them.

And it becomes very clear the more that you read that it seems like there's really a deal here.

Well, I'm really glad that you brought this up, Michael.

I mean, that is completely right.

Typically, and especially in the past couple of years, Congress has been a very top-down institution.

What we saw here really was a return to sort of a style of legislating that was more

common maybe six years ago, 10 years ago.

These were the so-called gangs that senators really prided themselves on being a part of, right?

It was the idea that me and my Democratic friends are going to sit down in a closed door room with you and your five Republican friends, and we're going to hammer this out amongst ourselves.

And that's really what we saw here.

And I think it's one of the reasons why, again, their sudden declaration that they had a deal really did surprise a lot of people.

Got it.

And Michael, the other surprising thing about the Senate is that even though it is known for being such a slow moving institution, it can really move quickly when its leaders want it to.

And so it was really not long after these centrist Democrats declared that they had the votes for a compromise to reopen the government that we saw that compromise be put to a vote on the Senate floor.

So shortly after casting their votes, this clutch of Democrats hold a news conference right off the Senate floor.

And they talk about how important they believe extending these health care subsidies is.

But mostly they talk about the pain that people are experiencing in a shutdown.

You have senators talking about SNAP recipients, right, who are going hungry.

We have TSA agents.