Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) is glad that House Republicans passed the cromnibus spending bill tonight rather than going to their fallback plan.

“It’s not a perfect bill,” Reid said on the Senate floor, per Politico. “But this bill is so much better than a short-term CR.”

Reid has plenty of reasons to be happy. The bill almost failed because of a change to campaign-finance laws that he had inserted into the bill, according to a House Democrat.

“Harry Reid wanted that in because he wants the political parties to take greater control of the electoral process, because if there is a vacuum than individual contributors who have their own agenda — oftentinmes its to deregulate their own industry or to cut their own taxes — they fill up vacuums,” retiring Virginia Representative Jim Moran told reporters after a House Democratic caucus meeting. “So, Reid and [Democratic National Committee chairwoman] Debbie Wasserman Schultz and others want people to be able to contribute to the political parties.”

The campaign-finance change has more often been seen as incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s handiwork. The provision strengthens the ability of leaders in both parties to control their respective campaign processes.

Representative Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) said it wasn’t clear who inserted the controversial provision into the spending package.

“Since no one has taken paternity ownership of these new items, we can’t even identify who ordered them,” Fattah told reporters, referring to the campaign-finance change and the Dodd-Frank rider that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) denounced.