By ALAN FRAM <\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 23, 2021 (apnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats were on a roll. The House voted along party lines to make the nation\u2019s capital the 51st state<\/a> and two hours later, the Senate overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation to address violence against Asian Americans.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday\u2019s twin victories let Democrats display momentum just six days before President Joe Biden\u2019s maiden speech to Congress<\/a>. Yet they also shined a spotlight on his party\u2019s limitations in enacting his agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite a minuscule majority, House Democrats have overcome Republican opposition and passed legislation this year reworking voting laws, toughening gun background checks and fulfilling other party goals. Yet in the 50-50 Senate, which Democrats control because of Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 tiebreaking vote, bipartisan cooperation will be the only pathway to passage for many bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Senate GOP\u2019s superpower: filibusters, bill-killing delays that would force the chamber\u2019s 50 Democrats to win votes from at least 10 Republicans to prevail. That gives Republicans tremendous power over much of Biden\u2019s and Democrats\u2019 agenda, and it\u2019s fueling frustration among progressives who want senators to abolish the filibuster rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything we love is at stake,\u201d first-term Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said Thursday, ticking off a list of House-passed bills gathering dust in the Senate. \u201cNot just everything we love, but everything we need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would take all 50 Democratic senators \u2014 plus Harris \u2014 to abolish or curtail the filibuster, over the certain objection of the chamber\u2019s 50 Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have opposed eliminating it, and Democrats say others in the party quietly oppose the move as well. Filibuster defenders say the threat of the tactic encourages the two parties to work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship,\u201d Manchin wrote in a Washington Post opinion essay this month, a sentiment many Democrats consider naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filibuster supporters also say Democrats would regret eliminating the rule once the GOP, inevitably at some point, returns to majority control. Democrats in past GOP-run Senates have used it to prevent Republicans from curtailing abortion rights and in other fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Significantly, Biden has already won the capstone of his first months\u2019 agenda \u2014 the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, signed into law in March. In coming months, he stands a strong chance of achieving a second major triumph on his proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan<\/a>, which the White House says would create millions of jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe biggest pieces of Biden\u2019s agenda, that he\u2019s put the most political capital behind, already became law\u201d or have a strong chance of that, said Matt Bennett, a top official with Third Way, a centrist Democratic group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats passed the virus relief bill over unanimous Republican opposition because they used special budget rules preventing GOP filibusters. They might resort to the same procedure for the infrastructure bill to prevail if, as seems strongly possible, they can\u2019t reach compromise with Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But use of the procedure circumventing filibusters is strictly limited by Senate rules. Since January alone, that\u2019s stymied Democratic initiatives beloved by the party\u2019s core liberal voters, including bills easing voting restrictions, reviving portions of the Voting Rights Act, tightening gun restrictions and helping women win salaries equal to men\u2019s pay. The bill granting statehood to the District of Columbia also faces no chance in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under pressure after this week\u2019s conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer in the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, senators are trying to negotiate a compromise for overhauling police procedures<\/a>. A House-passed bill would ban chokeholds, improve police training and end immunity of many police officers from lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The roadblocks have prompted progressives like Bush to continue pressing Democratic senators to eliminate the filibuster. Some top Democrats have repeatedly dangled the threat of doing just that. Liberals hope pressure on Senate Democrats to end the rule will build as House-passed bills stack up in the chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis chamber can work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday after it passed the bill taking modest steps to ease violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we forgo our principles. That doesn\u2019t mean we cut back on the boldness that is needed. But it means we try to work with our Republican colleagues whenever we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a news conference last month, Biden advocated a return to an earlier filibuster version that forced objecting senators to speak on the Senate floor until one side or the other surrendered. He added that if a \u201ccomplete lockdown\u201d occurred, \u201cwe\u2019ll have to go beyond what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday that \u201cMitch McConnell is still the problem.\u201d She was referring to Democrats\u2019 nemesis, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky, who exactly two years ago happily described himself as the \u201cGrim Reaper\u201d killing progressive bills in his chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McConnell, however, isn\u2019t to blame for all their Senate woes. Democrats currently lack 50 Senate votes for expanded gun background checks, raising the minimum wage and some other priorities, so eliminating the filibuster wouldn\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans are already playing offense on the filibuster fight. McConnell warned on the Senate floor Thursday that Democrats want to eliminate the procedure to push though legislation imposing new federal voting rules, adding more Supreme Court justices and creating a new Democratic-controlled state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRewriting the rules of American politics to exclusively benefit one side,\u201d McConnell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking ahead to 2022 elections when Republicans hope to win congressional control, the GOP House and Senate campaign committees are savoring using the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to become a standard question\u201d for Democrats, said Chris Hartline, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. \u201cThey\u2019ll have to say that they support getting rid of the filibuster, or they will face the ire of their liberal base\u201d if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By ALAN FRAM April 23, 2021 (apnews.com) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats were on a roll. The House voted along party lines to make the nation\u2019s capital the 51st state and two hours later, the Senate overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation to address violence against Asian Americans. Thursday\u2019s twin victories let Democrats display momentum just… Continue reading