Democrats are at odds over the next steps to advance President Biden’s legislative agenda after the demise of his signature $1.75 trillion social welfare and climate package.
Lawmakers have commenced talks over what “chunks” of the Build Back Better bill could pass as stand-alone legislation after the spending package sunk in the Senate.
But members vastly differ on what they want to do first — climate change, child care, paid family leave, universal preschool, or restoring direct payments to parents through the child tax credit program.
The conflicting priorities are the new roadblocks to Democrats delivering on their big promises to voters before they face them again in November.
“There’s a lot of hope and optimism that we can get the pieces through,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Democrat. “It’s obviously hard, and it involves a lot of negotiation with these senators.”
Mr. Biden kicked off the effort when he conceded defeat of the big bill and then said at a White House press conference last month that he still planned to pass “big chunks” of it.
The path forward will mostly have to be negotiated in the Senate, where the package died in December after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia announced that he would vote against it because of the huge price tag and concerns the federal spending would fuel more inflation.
That doesn’t mean House Democrats will bow to the will of their colleagues on the other side of the Capitol, said Mr. Moulton. He said wants more hearings and analyses of whatever pieces of the big bill are resurrected.
For Mr. Moulton, a top priority would be high-speed rail.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus, meanwhile, is heavily messaging on the need to extend the child tax credit and offer a federally subsidized paid leave program.
“Investments to support women and families with policies like child care, universal pre-K, and paid family and medical leave were needed long before the COVID-19 pandemic,” the caucus tweeted. “By passing the #BuildBackBetterAct, we will support women and grow our economy.”
Rep. Don Beyer, Virginia Democrat, wants the climate change portions of the bill to be passed ahead of everything else.
“If we don’t take care of the climate, everything else is irrelevant,” Mr. Beyer said. “It’s all very popular with the American people, but first things first, the climate.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said pressing forward with Build Back Better, even in parts, will present a campaign challenge for both Republicans and Democrats.
If Democrats can’t get anything passed from the bill, Republicans can mobilize on their failure to secure a legislative victory and keep their promises.
If Republicans vote against stand-alone bills on issues that are popular with voters, Democrats can use their votes against them ahead of the midterms.
“Failure to pass a package will be a blow to the Biden administration, a blow to the American economy, but I think [Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer] is going to hold test votes to put the Republicans on a record against the most popular parts of the plan,” Mr. Bannon said.
Indeed, some of the Democrats’ proposals poll well when taken individually.
About 53% of registered voters said they would support an extension of the child tax credit, according to a recent Morning Consult/POLITICO poll.
That recently expired program, which was undertaken as part of COVID-19 relief, sent monthly payments of $300 per child under age 6 and $250 per child ages 6 to 17 to parents making up to $150,000 a year.
The same poll also found that 76% of registered voters supported the $150 billion boost for Medicaid home care for older adults and people with disabilities.
About 47% of voters supported the Build Back Better Act as a whole.
The poll of 2,000 registered voters was conducted Dec. 4-6. It had an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Some of the more liberal Democrats still hold out hope that they can pass the entire package or at least something similar that meets all their social welfare and climate goals.
“I still believe we can pass the package,” said Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat. “People change, given time and as things continue to develop, I think that can happen. So I’m hopeful that there’ll be a change, and I think it can happen in general before November.”
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