Former Rep. G.K. Butterfield was so eager to talk shop that he called this reporter five minutes early. Republicans at the time were still feuding over who to pick for speaker, and the retired Democrat was keeping score.
“So, Emmer has about 40 percent of the vote,” he said, engaging in some quick mental math as tallies leaked from a closed-door meeting. “Once a whip, always a whip!”
That instinct for vote counting served Butterfield well as senior chief deputy whip in the last Congress. Despite a narrow 222-211 majority in the House, Democrats managed to elect Nancy Pelosi as speaker on the first ballot and then enact a number of sprawling bills, including a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief measure, the $1.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act, a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, a statute shoring up gay marriage and the first gun control measure in decades. By some metrics, it was the most productive Congress ever.
