WASHINGTON (AP) – With a powerful new tool, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has new options to potentially advance President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package and other priorities prior to the Republican obstruction in the Senate divided from 50 to 50.
Republicans are still committed to doing everything possible to stop Biden, but the opinion of an official MP this week may change the game. It triggers multiple options for Democrats to advance parts of Biden’s agenda, including immigration and Medicare legislation, with 51 votes in the 100-member Senate instead of the 60 normally needed to pass major legislation to filibuster threats.
There has been talk of trying to change the rules of filibusterism, but that would be a strong political impetus to the Senate divided and dedicated to tradition.
The White House was encouraged by the MP’s ruling, but did not give up the support of some Republicans, despite its strong opposition to paying much of the infrastructure plan with an increase in corporation tax. The president, said press secretary Jen Psaki, “continues to believe … that there is a bipartisan path forward.”
However, it is clear that the deep partisan polarization in Washington has led to a new era in legislation. Capitol Hill’s political attempts are delving deeper into the procedural toolbox to find ways to eliminate the situation that normally leaves Congress at a standstill.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell denied Biden for partisanship and said Tuesday that his side would not support the $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure package Biden wants to pay with the corporate tax hike .
“I haven’t seen it yet for a president who presented himself as bipartisan,” McConnell told Kentucky reporters.
McConnell said Biden is a “fantastic person I know well, I like him. We’ve been friends for years. He hasn’t been a moderate.”
While congressional Democrats already planned to resort to “budget reconciliation,” a special budget-linked procedure with a 51-vote threshold to approve parts of Biden’s $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure package, the ruling of the parliamentarian opens the door to use it in some other priorities.
The talks revolve around a review of immigration that could provide some a path to citizenship. The use of the process to reduce the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 60 and other agenda items is also discussed.
Schumer’s office said no decisions have been made. Any action still involves snatching the consensus of the 50 senators from the Democratic group, progressives and centrists alike, which could be daunting. But spokesman Justin Goodman praised the MP’s view as “an important step forward in making this key path available to Democrats if necessary.”
The use of budget rules to pass general legislation on a party line vote is not new. Congress used the budget reconciliation process last month to approve Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 bailout despite Republican non-Republican support.
According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the process was first used in 1980, since then, for many years.
In 2017, a Republican-controlled Congress used budget reconciliation to pass Trump-era GOP tax cuts in a party line vote. In 2010, Democrats used it for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. George W. Bush relied on reconciliation twice to pass tax cuts, including one when Vice President Dick Cheney cast the tiebreaker vote.
But the opinion of the party’s MP in the Senate, Elizabeth McDonough, Monday afternoon means the process could potentially be used several times this year, instead of just two or three times, as expected.
Typically, Congress has a budget resolution every fiscal year, or two every calendar year since the fiscal year begins on October 1st. The parliamentarian indicated that if the annual budget resolution was revised, the process could be reused.
This is a faster route to certain Biden priorities than avoiding the Senate filibuster, the long-standing practice that some senators and critics say is a setback used by pro-segregationists to block Civil Rights legislation and that should change.
The filibuster allows any senator to oppose consideration of legislation or other issues and, in general, can only be surpassed by a threshold of 60 votes, a high order in the now divided chamber.
Democrats have a 50-50 majority in the Senate because party vice president Kamala Harris can vote tiebreaker.
While Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore, and other progressive leaders have advocated changing the rules of filibusterism, no more centrist Democrats, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are involved.
The use of budget conciliation could provide a short-term solution, but it is not without its drawbacks. It involves a cumbersome process and sometimes all-night Senate sessions called “vote-to-branches,” as senators offer several amendments.
In addition, budgetary tools have other limits on which proposals must comply with budgetary guidelines, which means that not all bills would be eligible.
The lawmaker already rejected earlier this year a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 per hour as part of the COVID-19 package because it did not meet budget guidelines.
Voting rights, gun violence laws and other legislation are likely to reach similar limits.
Those looking for changes to the filibuster rules welcomed the budget tool, but said changes are still needed in filibuster practice.
“It’s great that Senate Democrats can pass many of their economic priorities with a simple majority,” said Eli Zupnick of Fix our Senate, a group that advocates filibuster changes.
But he said “that won’t be much enough if the filibuster remains a tool.”
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Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.