“If you want to make it a little more painful, let him stand there and talk,” Manchin said. “I am prepared to look any further, but I am not prepared to take away the involvement of the minority.”
However, Manchin did not rule out using the budget reconciliation process to pass a simple majority voting bill, which kept the door open for a possible solution for Democrats to push through a revision of the vote while preserving the filibuster. The House on Wednesday adopted a comprehensive package of election-related reforms, a proposal that gave the symbolically important designation of HR 1.
It is not clear how Manchin suggested that HR 1 could possibly be implemented through reconciliation, as it is not related to the budget, and the proposed minimum wage increase for the Democrats was lifted by the strict rules of the process and on the cutting room floor. left.
But Manchin said Democrats need to engage sensibly with Republicans before embarking on that path, which they used late last week to pass a $ 1.9 billion Covid emergency relief package without a single GOP senate vote.
“I’m not prepared to do reconciliation until we are at least dual or working together or allowing the Senate to do its job,” Manchin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I’m not going there until my Republican friends have the ability to have their say, too.”
Manchin insisted he would “not change his mind” about defending the filibuster, which would force major legislation to remove a 60-vote threshold to pass the Senate, and under fierce criticism from a number of Democratic members of Congress and outside allies came as a major obstacle to progressive policy. The Senate is now evenly divided, 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast the tie.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) said he expects the enthusiasm for defending the filibuster could wane if Republicans continue to use it to advance democratic priorities. Meanwhile, he said the party would have to use reconciliation and other vehicles to meet their agenda.
“If we continue to see obstruction from our Republican colleagues – as we have seen through this Covid assistance package – I think patience is going to run low, even on moderate Democrats,” Padilla told CNN on Sunday. “But we’ll see.”
The implementation of the so-called “talking filibuster” seems to be striking a chord with Brian Fallon, executive director of the group Demand Justice, and a one-day spokesman for current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who tweeted that it has the potential to to be the ‘ultimate’. solution here. ”
‘It retains some capacity for the minority to delay a bill as long as they physically keep the floor, but then allow for an up-or-down vote once they give up. This is the Jimmy Stewart model, ‘he wrote, referring to the 1939 film’ Mr. Smith goes to Washington. ”