Democrats pushed hard to raise the minimum wage as part of the pandemic relief measure, which the Senate can approve with just 51 votes, thanks to protections from the mysterious budget reconciliation process. But now that the House MP has ruled out adding the salary increase to the coronavirus project, progressives see detonating the ultimate obstruction as their best – and perhaps only – chance of reaching $ 15 an hour.
Very few Senate Democrats believe that the left’s demands to overturn the 60-vote limit of the House will have any effect on the dynamics of its 50-member convention, where there are currently there is insufficient support to eliminate the obstruction. Still, pressure from progressives on and off the Hill – which made obstruction a key issue during Democratic presidential primaries – is intensifying rapidly only in the second month of Biden’s term.
With Democrats preparing to take on other high-priority legislation, including a historic voting rights bill and police reform, the cry from liberals to end obstruction is bound to cause new political headaches for party leaders.
Thursday night’s setback for the minimum wage is the first of many potential stressors as Democrats rethink the future of legislative obstruction. Few of the party’s top political priorities stand a real chance of passing the Senate without eliminating the tool that requires a 60-vote margin of approval for most measures.
“It will take a few more problems that are momentarily frustrated to reach a critical point, but we are getting closer every day,” said Brian Fallon, executive director of the liberal group Demand Justice.
Exactly what item on the agenda could constitute the Democratic breaking point is unclear, as the party is pushing for an expansion of voting rights, immigration reform and more.
Former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada ended the obstruction for executive power and some court nominees in 2013, a move known as the “nuclear option”, and current Republican Party leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky continued to walk the path in 2017, ending the obstruction for Supreme Court nominees.
“You may have to demonstrate to the American people how serious the challenge of achieving a major change that affects their lives is when you have the blockage that obstruction allows,” said Sen Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Noting that he and other Senate Democrats who would not have supported the end of the obstruction “are much more open to it” now.
Biden has consistently resisted calls to become nuclear and his press secretary reiterated that position after he took office. But he is now facing an aligned series of progressives in the House, Senate and outside advocacy groups recently encouraged to stir up against what they consider a mysterious rule that is a relic of the Jim Crow era.
“The obstruction was never in the constitution, it originated mainly by accident and has historically been used to block civil rights,” tweeted Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) shortly after the Senate MP’s decision. “It’s time to destroy Jim Crow’s obstruction.”
Schatz acknowledged in an interview on Friday that Democrats currently “have no votes to get rid of the obstruction”, but said the party cannot simply raise its hands and accept the stalemate. “This is a monumental change, this is a necessary change,” he said.
Failure to comply with the party’s promise to pass a $ 15 minimum wage could have dire consequences for Democrats at the polls, progressive lawmakers argue. Biden campaigned to raise hourly wages for the first time in a decade. The issue is also a long-standing priority for key Democratic constituents, including labor unions.
The pressure is particularly intense in the House, where the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have long hoped that the battle for the minimum wage would turn into a broader debate about obstruction. Some have been preparing intimately to have this exact struggle with the Senate institutionalists right now.
Some on the left still believe that their party could get into a fight with the parliamentarian, the Senate’s chief arbitrator of rules, to force the inclusion of the minimum wage in the bill. But most believe it is a long shot and is looking at legislative obstruction as the biggest problem.
“Our immediate options on this specific problem [are] do something about this parliamentary obstacle or abolish obstruction, ”said MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.).
“We expect the senators, the administration, to fight as hard as we have,” added Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “I think it’s time for us to stop making excuses to do the right thing.”
Even if the obstruction were removed, however, it is not clear whether the $ 15 minimum wage would actually pass the Senate. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) And Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) said they do not support raising the minimum wage to $ 15 as part of the coronavirus relief package. Manchin said he supports a $ 11 minimum wage, which Ocasio-Cortez and others on the left have declared non-incumbent.
And when a group of Senate Republicans made a proposal this week to raise the minimum wage to $ 10, progressives shouted their objections. Asked if she would accept a commitment below $ 15, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) replied: “We need $ 15 an hour. That’s where I am. ”
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are vehemently opposed to calls to remove legislative obstruction. During negotiations on a 50-50 Senate power-sharing deal, McConnell insisted that Democrats commit to keeping the 60-vote limit, a proposal that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer rejected. And Republicans are quick to remind Democrats that they resisted pressure from then President Donald Trump to end this when they controlled Washington in 2017.
Liberal activists have continuously pressured skeptical Democrats to abolish legislative obstruction by mounting advertising campaigns targeting Schumer – who is running for re-election next year – and others. Since Thursday’s decision to raise the minimum wage, social justice groups like Ultraviolet, Women’s March and the Sunrise Movement have asked Biden and Senate Democrats to get rid of the 60-vote margin.
“Everything voters voted to help put Joe Biden in the White House requires the Senate to be able to function fully,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, in an interview.
Nina Turner, an ally of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Who is running for a seat on the Ohio House of Representatives, said progressives have no plans to give up their opposition to obstruction.
“The people who were hired to bid for the people are going to have to have the courage to end this,” said Turner. “A breaking point is coming. I just don’t know what or when. “