Make the Senate the Senate again

Senate Democrats have given up their brief, pointless, and mostly harmless shutdown of the federal government. They did so by agreeing to the very same bill they had filibustered the week before, in hopes of gaining something Republicans had already promised.

It was a silly shutdown, a fact made crystal clear by the Democrats’ quick fold on its first actual business day.Trump was breaking ground on immigration, then it all went to "shit"
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Their objection was that the spending bill didn’t include an immigration provision. It was always silly for Democrats to insist that immigration reform be attached to a spending bill. But they had a hint of a legitimate gripe: They wanted to vote on the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program (relief for otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children), and they suspected there was no way to get a real debate on this measure unless they had leverage, such as a government shutdown.

The deal that lawmakers reached Monday has two salutary effects: It separates immigration from appropriations, and it sets up a real, open debate with actual amendments and floor votes on DACA.

Here’s hoping it’s a precedent, and that this marks the return of the Senate to being ... well, the Senate.