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Washington (AFP) – Hopes for a major investment in infrastructure are faltering. Ambitious elections and voting bill are dead. Legislation regarding police brutality, gun control, and immigration has stalled.
Nearly six months into Democratic control in Washington, the party’s progressive wing is growing increasingly anxious as campaign promises falter — not only because Republicans are obstructed, but also because Democrats are unable to unite fully around priorities.
The time ahead is pivotal for President Joe Biden and his allies in Congress to seize what some see as a turning moment to rebuild the economy and reshape the country.
“There is a lot of anxiety,” said Representative Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who was a co-chair in Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid. “It’s a question really directed at President Biden: What kind of president does he want to be?”
Summer work has traditionally been among the busiest for Congress, but it’s especially intense this year as Democrats struggle to advance Biden’s agenda. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned his colleagues that June “will test our resolve.” Infrastructure talks are teetering on, though Biden is expected to speak again Tuesday with Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the lead Republican negotiator. But the boundaries of the bipartisan 50-50 Senate partnership are increasingly clear.
The party suffered a devastating blow over the weekend when Senator Joe Manchin of Deutsche Welle Virginia announced his opposition to the voting bill, titled S.1 because it is a top priority for the party. Many Democrats see it as crucial to protecting democracy and a direct response to restrictive new voting laws being passed in Republican-led states with encouragement from Donald Trump, the former president.
“Am I frustrated? Yes, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-W., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, warned against failing to deliver on promises. “We will lose voters for a generation.”
Schumer, setting the agenda, challenges senators to prepare to make tough choices. But he also faces a test of his ability to lead the Big Tent Party through a volatile period of changing priorities and tactics in the wake of the Trump era and the Capitol uprising.
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While Democratic senators have been generating goodwill by considering bipartisan bills in an evenly divided Senate, they are facing increasing pressure from the voters who put them in office to fight hard for the legislation Republicans are determined to block. Democrats have an advantage in the Senate because Vice President Kamala Harris can break the tie in the vote.
Some senators are tired of delays, and are willing to change the rules to eliminate disruption, which they blame for inaction. Long-standing Senate rules require 60 votes to move forward on most legislation, which means as many as 10 Republicans will need to cross partisan lines to help Democrats achieve their priorities. Some senators are proposing lowering the voting threshold to 51.
But Manchin, declaring his opposition to the voting rights bill Sunday as “the wrong legislation to unite our country,” also reiterated his refusal to end the disruption — for now, depriving his party of the critical vote needed to make the rules change that could help advance its agenda.
Civil rights figures, including Reverend Al Sharpton and Mark Morial, are scheduled to meet with Manchin in Washington on Tuesday. Biden urged them to visit the senator to discuss the voting bill and legislative agenda. Encourage them to keep the conversation constructive and not pressure the senator—at least for now, according to a person familiar with the discussion but not authorized to speak on private conversations.
While Manchin has spoken of supporting another voting law, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, advocates of S.1 Law say both pieces of legislation are necessary. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden agrees that Congress should move forward with both.
At the same time, Democratic groups supporting S.1 have pledged to continue a $30 million campaign to pressure Democratic senators to rewrite the disruption rules and pass the law — including television ads in West Virginia at Mansion.
But Manchin isn’t the only one who’s against changing disruption laws. Without support from him or other stalled advocates, such as Senator Kirsten Senema, Democrat of Arizona, Democratic senators will be forced to confront the confines of their fragile majority. If the Democrats decide to go it alone on a big infrastructure bill, where talks with Republican senators are stalling, they will need unity because they won’t have votes to spare.
Failure to deliver on campaign promises that are popular with voters could exacerbate party divisions and expose Democrats to criticism from their own ranks as well as from Republicans eager to show that Biden’s party cannot govern.
“We need to get the ball moving,” said Yvette Simpson, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal advocacy organization.
“We have asked everyone to stand against all odds in the pandemic and vote,” she said of the 2020 election. The promise was that with the Democrats in power, “we’ll have all these great things, and their lives will be better. And what they’ve found is that it looks like Washington as usual.”
Schumer has been laying the groundwork for this moment since becoming majority leader in January, trying to build a case that the bipartisan partnership can work in some cases — with the passage of the Asian Hate Crimes Act or a public water works package. But he also understands that it has limits, according to two of his Democratic aides who were granted anonymity to discuss the private strategy.
An aide said the weekly Democrats’ closed-door caucus lunch was intense, particularly during the two special sessions they have had to discuss the way forward on the voting rights bill.
Rather than force reluctant senators to comply with the commitment, Schumer is trying to lead Democrats to their own conclusion — either bipartisan deals with Republicans are possible or they have no choice but to go it alone on infrastructure or other priorities, aides said.
One of his aides suggested that Schumer was not the leader of Lyndon Johnson, who before he became president was known for his sycophancy as a majority leader.
Khanna said the president, however, could have a big role. “This is going to be his LBJ moment – can he pick up the phone and work his magic to engage the Democrats?”
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Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemmer and Brian Slodescu contributed to this report.
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