WASHINGTON – Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a moderate Democrat who has often refused to try to change Senate rules to allow his party to work on the agenda against the Republican opposition, signaled on Sunday a willingness to make changes to the obstruction and support the future party line votes if bipartisan negotiations were unsuccessful.
Manchin, whose role as perhaps the most centrist Democrat in an equally divided Senate gives him an overwhelming influence, remained adamant on Sunday that he would not vote for the total abolition of the 60-vote supermajority limit, which requires Democrats to attract the support of 10 Republicans pass most of the legislation.
But he reiterated that he would support changing the rules of practice and, potentially, establishing a “talking obstruction” – requiring any senator who opposes the closure of the debate to remain in the plenary and speak at all times. This could make obstructions much less frequent and give Democrats much more opportunities to pass party line vote laws, with Vice President Kamala Harris launching the tiebreaker.
“If you want to make things a little more painful, make him stay there and talk, I’m willing to see it any way we can,” said Manchin of the obstruction on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “But I am not willing to remove the minority’s involvement.”
Manchin had previously expressed openness to a “talking obstructionist”, but his comments gained new weight after he became the 50th key vote to approve President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus in a party vote on Saturday, and he said he would be open to more such votes in the future.
His comments were also the last sign that Democrats were already beginning to take advantage of the lessons of the dispute from Biden’s first major legislative initiative, in addition to the united Republican opposition, as they turn to more politically charged ambitions. Several Democrats are pushing for a future in which legislation can follow a more aggressive and partisan pattern defined by the stimulus: if bipartisan negotiations do not translate into Republican votes, Democrats will move forward with policies of their choice.
The broad aid package, which the House is expected to take on earlier this week after the Senate passed measure 50-49 on Saturday, is the first pandemic aid bill that will become law without a Republican vote.
It will provide up to $ 1,400 in direct payments to individuals, a federal unemployment supplement of $ 300 a week through Labor Day, and billions of dollars for vaccine distribution, schools, small businesses and other institutions. It also includes a significant investment in safety net spending as part of the biggest effort to fight poverty in a generation.
Democrats, unwilling to compromise the size and scope of the package after what they see as serious miscalculations during the Great Recession, sought an accelerated budget process known as reconciliation as a way to get around obstruction and Republican opposition.
But the reconciliation process should be used sparingly, only for legislation that has a direct effect on the federal budget. Mr. Manchin said that he would be willing to “reach a reconciliation where we have to do something”.
Biden’s stimulus plan
“But I will not be going there until my Republican friends also have the opportunity to speak,” added Manchin. “I hope they get involved to the point that we have 10 of them who will work with 50 of us.”
Democrats have a number of priorities in which they may have difficulty getting those 10 votes, including voting rights legislation and an immigration review.
But even if Democrats look for ways to pass laws with their own votes alone, Manchin showed this weekend that it won’t be easy. He delayed final approval of the stimulus bill and instigated the longest open vote in the history of the modern Senate, while Democratic leaders struggled to allay their concerns about the length of unemployment benefits and whether a tax benefit would be targeted based on income.
While Democrats were ready to move forward with a clause that kept the $ 300 weekly benefit until October and made up to $ 10,200 of the 2020 tax-free benefits, Manchin hesitated, he said on Saturday, after learning the details about the 10 am on Friday. He had also made a promise, according to two people familiar with the private conversation, to Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, that Manchin would support an amendment that would end the $ 300 benefit after mid-July.
“Look, I always respect my members, and who they are and what they feel,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said in an interview after the legislation passed Saturday. With his feet supported, barefoot, in his office, he added: “We knew that we could not succeed in Portman’s amendment or the bill would fall, and we never deviated from it.”
Mr. Manchin finally agreed to extend the $ 300 provision until Labor Day, one week more than the $ 400 increase that the House approved, and signed on to maintain tax benefits for those whose family income was less than $ 150,000. On Sunday, he rejected the suggestion that Democrats would have to adapt their agenda to their beliefs, arguing that he just wanted to “look for that moderate medium” and emphasizing that they finally reached an agreement.
“I am the same person that I have been my whole life and since I have been in public office. I’m the same, ”said Manchin on ABC’s“ This Week ”. “I have been voting the same way for the past 10 years.”
Manchin’s comments were made while Democrats were celebrating approval of the bill. Even with some reduced provisions to accommodate both moderate concerns and the enigmatic Senate rules, progressives were thrilled on Saturday with Senator Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat, telling reporters, “This is the best day of my life in the Senate . It’s really.”
Democrats praised Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, as well as voters who sent them to Washington and consolidated Democratic control of the Senate.
“There is no doubt that the people of Georgia deserve a lot of credit for what happened here today,” Warnock said after the vote. “We simply would not be here if they had not risen so deeply in this historic election, and I am deeply honored to be playing a role in the government that really works for the people.”
But with frustration still bubbling up at the exclusion of a clause that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15, some lawmakers and liberal activists have mounted a new campaign to end the obstruction, which has long reduced their legislative ambitions. In the interview, Mr. Schumer acknowledged that some Democratic ambitions cannot be promoted using the reconciliation process because of the rigid rules, but he insisted that unity on Saturday “will help us to stay together to move on.”
Luke Broadwater contributed reports.