In his early days, President Biden moved quickly to start implementing his agenda, signing executive orders and setting out new actions aimed at uplifting the economy, combating climate change and reducing the racial prosperity gap. But his most important step could in fact be a reaffirmation of an old position – that the Senate should protect the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold that has been promoting extensive legislation for years, including on issues it now wants to address.
Progressive grumbling about the filibuster rose this week after Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, initially refused to agree to the basic rules for the chamber unless the Democrats agreed to uphold the procedural tactics. But it has only remained a murmur, and it reflects the progressive desire for warfare within parties early in mr.
Some argue that Mr. Biden and the Senate’s remarks will heat up the idea as soon as Republicans block a popular piece of legislation, such as the John Lewis suffrage law, named after the civil rights hero who passed away last year. Others again think that the desire of mr. Praying to be seen as a transforming president will overwhelm his instincts as a basic traditionalist of Washington.
“We must realize that the Senate has changed fundamentally since the time President Biden served,” said Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a forerunner who endorsed the elimination of the filibuster. “And that made it impossible to continue with big issues.”
“You can not be unrealistically nostalgic for a time that will not come back,” he added. “The Senate is not returning to an earlier state.”
Whatever the liberal wing of the party wants, eliminating the filibuster requires the support of the entire Democratic caucus. And several moderate senators – such as Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Cinema of Arizona – are still strongly opposed to it. Mr. Manchin, when asked if there was a scenario that would change plans, said: “No single person.” A spokeswoman for Ms. Cinema told The Washington Post that she “is not open to change her mind.”
Some progressive people believe that Mr. Manchin, me. Cinema and others may change their minds if Republicans obstruct the Democratic agenda. Some moderates argue that the threat to eliminate the filibuster could force Republicans to legislate compromises. The minority party has often used the filibuster to block signature items from the majority party, and some Democrats fear without them they would be powerless to stop Republicans the next time they control the Senate.
The commitment of mr. Biden to keep the philosophy of the Senate falls back on the policy debates that animated the Democratic presidential election. At that point, candidates, including Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and me. Harris of California – the ultimate vice president of Mr. Biden – openly expressed to eliminate the filibuster or asked directly for its removal.
Their logic was identified by years of Congress under former President Barack Obama and the scale of the challenges facing the country: major problems need major solutions, they claim, and the filibuster was a blockade to progress. Mr. Biden himself expressed some willingness to reconsider his position last summer.
“It will depend on how barrier they become,” he said. Biden said about Republicans at the time.
Now in office, it appears he has closed the window – a reflection of a campaign focused on working across party lines and his history as a Washington trader valuable to dual civilization.
With the division of the Senate 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, it could be Mr. McConnell and a small group of moderate voices empowered to block almost any legislation. It can Mr. Biden is doomed to the same fate as his Democratic presidential predecessor, blaming Republican obstructionism for blocking a more robust liberal agenda.
Mr. Markey said he was confident that if Mr. Biden would begin to experience the same fate, he would come.
“Treat the Senate as it exists today,” he said. Markey said. “And I believe when and if the key components of his agenda are blocked, the government will see how much hindrance the filibuster is.”
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He added: “This is an obstacle to progress and justice.”
Yet progressive activist groups and liberal legislators have largely responded to Mr. Biden’s position with more shrugging than a rally. In interviews, several leaders said it was too soon to eliminate the filibuster. They also maintained that Mr. Biden would change his mind as soon as his promise to ‘build back better’ faces the full reality of congressional bias.
Brian Fallon, the former press secretary of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, said most of the activists’ initial opposition to Mr. Biden expected and incorporated it into their strategies. He predicted that the Democrats would make an ultimate impact on eliminating the filibuster after a bill that is widely supported, rather than tackling the issue in a vacuum. And for some senators – and the president – it’s important that the elimination of the filibuster is seen as a last resort.
Mr. Biden’s ‘rhetoric remains unity-oriented and conciliatory’, said Mr. Fallon said. “But he rules in a way that makes me think he’s putting a premium on achieving real results and making a big impact.”
Mr. Fallon added that he is optimistic that Mr. Biden and his administration will soon recognize the need to get rid of the filibuster.
Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, a thriving group that supports primary elections against more centrist House Democrats, said the importance of this fight would determine President Biden. His group did not try to Mr. Praying or putting Senate Democrats under pressure that blocked the removal of the filibuster.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve people’s lives, and there is no real way to do that without the majority in the Senate being allowed to rule,” Shahid said. “Democrats really have the wind on their sails. If they do not reform the filibuster, they could squander this moment. ”
As the majority party, the Democrats can eliminate the filibuster and force it through a change in the rules on a simple majority vote – a step known as an explosion of the ‘core option’ – if all 50 keep their members together and me. Harris the breakaway voice.
But many Democrats in Congress are reluctant to follow suit, giving Mr. Offer enough political coverage, at least for now.
Even among liberal senators, in both battlefield states and secure blue seats, there is hardly the fervor to eliminate the filibuster that existed in the Democratic presidential election. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, whose victories this month gave Democrats their dreams of a united government, largely avoided the question. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of the most liberal states in the country, has regularly expressed her vigilance to end the tradition.
But the positions obscure shifting political winds in the Democratic caucus, and the growing consensus below the ground that the party must take a strong stand on Republican obstruction.
Faiz Shakir, a political adviser to Mr. Sanders, who also worked for Harry Reid, the former Senate Majority Leader, said McConnell’s initial refusal to vote on the rules of the deal could have helped long-term opponents of the filibuster by Democrats early on. to see. of the opposition facing their agenda.
Mr. Shakir talks about Reid’s attempt to eliminate the use of the filibuster for all presidential candidates in 2013, except those in the Supreme Court, which initially suffered even among Democrats. Building consensus took time, Mr. Shakir said.
“I have no doubt that Schumer and his staff know every Democrat who is careful to end the filibuster,” he said. “They’re going to spend time working on them.”
The desire to eliminate the filibuster was once seen as an ominous debate among Washington insiders, until the Republican opposition to Obama’s agenda brought the issue to the fore. Calls to end the filibuster intensified during the administration of former President Donald J. Trump, when Republicans abolished it for candidates in the Supreme Court and upheld Judge Neil M. Gorsuch.
In July, proponents received a major boost from Mr. Obama, who expressed the tactic as a ‘Jim Crow remnant’ during his speech of praise for Mr. Lewis, the Congressman in Georgia.
Mr. Reid, who once supported the preservation of the filibuster, now argues that Republicans are using tactics to push through an unpopular agenda. “It will not hurt the Senate,” he said in a recent interview. “The Senate will succeed. The congress will be just fine. ”
Some believe the move of Mr. Obama is a foreshadowing of the path that Mr. Biden can follow, although the two men come from different political backgrounds. Mr. Obama was a newcomer to Washington at the time of his inauguration as president, although he sought to demonstrate the rules of Capitol Hill. These rules are woven into the legs of mr. Biden, a by-product of almost half a century as a legislator.
Adam Jentleson, another former assistant to Mr. Reid, who recently wrote a book on the transformation of the Senate, said: “You have to be fundamentally misleading to think that McConnell wants to act to lead Republicans in a renaissance of dual cooperation.”
He does not think Mr Biden is.
“There is going to be a clear choice between reform or failure,” he said. Jentleson said. “And I trust Biden will make the right decision when faced with the choice.”