WASHINGTON (AP) – With President Joe Biden on the brink of his first major legislative victory, a key moderate Democrat says he is open to changing Senate rules that could allow more party line votes to drive other parts of the party. the White House agenda, such as voting rights.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin stressed Sunday that he wants to maintain the procedural hurdle known as filibuster, saying important legislation must always have significant input from the minority party. But he noted that there are other ways to change the rules that now effectively require 60 votes for most legislation. One example: the “talking filibuster,” which requires senators to delay the bill by keeping the word, but then grant a simple majority vote “up or down” if they give up.
“The filibuster should be painful, it really should be painful, and we’ve made it more comfortable over the years,” Manchin said. “Maybe it should be more painful.”
“If you want it to be a little more painful, make him stop and talk,” Manchin added. “I’m willing to look at how we can, but I’m not willing to get minority participation out.”
Democrats begin looking at their next legislative priorities after winning Biden’s early signing on Saturday, with Senate approval a $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan in a 50-49 vote from the party line.
The final step in the House is expected Tuesday if leaders can maintain the support of frustrated progressives for the Senate to reduce unemployment benefits and eliminate the federal minimum wage increase to $ 15 per hour.
Over the weekend, the president of the Progressive Congress, who represented about 100 Liberals in the House, called the weakening of some Senate provisions “bad politics and bad politics.” But Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Also characterized the changes as “relatively minor concessions” and stressed that the bill retains its “basic bold and progressive elements.”
Biden says he would sign the measure immediately if the House approves it. The legislation would allow many Americans to receive $ 1,400 in direct government checks this month.
“Lessons learned: if we have unity, we can do great things,” a retired Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., told the Associated Press. in an interview after Saturday’s vote.
Still, the Democrats ’approach required a last-minute call from Biden to Manchin to secure his vote after he lifted a late resistance to expanding unemployment benefits. This immediately raised questions about the way forward in a partisan environment where few Republicans, if any, are expected to support the tables on the president’s agenda.
Democrats used an accelerated budget process known as reconciliation to pass Biden’s top priority without Republican support, a strategy that was successful despite the reservations of some moderates. But work in the coming months on other issues such as the right to vote and immigration may be more difficult.
Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., pledged that Senate Republicans will block the passage of a broad House-approved bill on voting rights. The measure, known as HR 1, would restrict partisan manipulation of congressional districts, remove barriers to voting, and bring transparency to the campaign funding system. It would counterbalance the voting rights restrictions that were advancing in Republican-controlled state houses across the country following Donald Trump’s repeated false claims about a “stolen” election.
“No Republican will vote for HR 1 because it is a federal election rig, it establishes a system where there is no real security or verification of voters,” Graham said. “It’s a liberal wish list in terms of how you vote.”
The Senate is split between 50 and 50, but Democrats control the chamber so Vice President Kamala Harris can vote tiebreaker. With 60 votes actually needed in most legislation, Democrats must win the support of at least some Republicans to pass Biden’s agenda.
When asked about the voting rights bill, Manchin left the door open on Sunday to support some sort of solution to allow the move based on a simple majority, suggesting he could support “reconciliation.” if he was satisfied that Republicans had the ability to provide input. But it was unclear how this would work, as voting rights are unrelated to the budget and could not be qualified for the conciliation process.
“I won’t go there until my Republican friends have the ability to say theirs, too,” Manchin said.
On Sunday, the filibuster advocacy group “Fix Our Senate” praised Manchin’s comments as a viable way to overcome “pure partisan obstruction” in the Senate.
“Sen. Manchin has just seen Senate Republicans unanimously oppose a very popular and so desperate COVID relief bill that it was only passed because it could not be obstructed, so it is encouraging to hear it expressed. its openness to reforms to ensure that voting rights and other critical bills cannot be blocked by a purely obstructionist minority, ”the group said in a statement.
Manchin spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN’s “Fox News Sunday,” CNN’s “State of the Union,” and ABC’s “This Week,” and Graham appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.