Today's Politico Playbook Audio Briefing is presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. We're going to get to COVID relief talks in a few seconds, but we wanted to take a quick minute to dwell on this.

House Democrats are going to begin the 117th Congress with a razor-th

majority that could leave the chamber practically ungovernable. Joe Biden's decision to put

Marsha Fudge in the cabinet gives Nancy Pelosi a 220-seat majority, just a five-seat edge over

House Republicans and a two-vote cushion to get bills through the chamber. That's incredibly,

incredibly tight. If you're one that believes COVID relief needs to happen through the chamber. That's incredibly, incredibly tight.

If you're one that believes COVID relief needs to happen in the first quarter of next year,

then it's likely going to have to be a negotiated bill between Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy,

the House GOP leader. McCarthy, by the way, is seeing his power grow rapidly after two years

during which Pelosi never had to consult him.

220 is the smallest majority since 2001, when Republicans maintained incredible party discipline with a similarly sized majority. In those days, they had Tom DeLay and earmarks to keep things

in line, and they never lost a vote. This included lots of screaming. This is the

smallest Democratic majority since 1893. We caught up with Fudge last night and asked her about

leaving Dems a bit thin, and whether she personally thinks about it or if she views it as someone

else's problem. She told us, that's tight. She also added,

certainly I'm in a safe district, right? Whoever would come here would be a part of this team as well,

so that gives me some comfort. But I just have to hope that we can hold together long enough

to make sure that something like that would never happen if I should leave. Because right now,

Cedric Richmond is gone,

and so we're down on his seat, will be a safe seat as well. So we're just hopeful that if this

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