The ten conservative House Democrats in the Sabotage Squad may have done Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a favor. They created a sort of deadline, which may or may not be entirely enforceable, but will still provide a reason for leadership to push their committee chairs and members to do the job of pushing these bills out.
They also proved the wisdom of the two-track process, which links the Senate's smaller hard infrastructure bill—passed there with Republican support—to the more extensive and essential $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation. That sweeping bill embodies President Joe Biden's Build Back Better program. The process was decided upon because the majority of Democrats in both the House and Senate wanted to ensure that they have the opportunity to pass the essential and great stuff of the Build Back Better plan, knowing that the Senate's bipartisan bill was going to be inadequate in addressing the challenges of everything from racial and economic inequality to the climate crisis. The majority knew that if the bills were not inextricably linked, the conservative minority Democrats would work with Republicans to make sure just one bill passed.
The Sabotage Squad, along with Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who egged them on, proved with this stunt that the rest of the Democrats have a real reason not to trust them. So there's another gift for Democrats—now they know precisely who they absolutely cannot trust. That's a valuable lesson as the work of putting together that reconciliation bill, which can pass with Democrats alone, continues. Approaching this with the full knowledge that Sinema and Manchin can't be trusted is frustrating but essential.
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Pelosi has asked all House committee chairs who have pieces of the full reconciliation bill to have their work done by September 15, in consultation with the Senate committees. "We write a bill with the Senate because it's no use our doing a bill that's not going to pass the Senate […] what the Senate rules will allow to proceed," she said Wednesday morning.
Working with the Senate parliamentarian to minimize conflict with the rules is vital in that the fewer problems the parliamentarian has, the fewer opportunities Manchin and Sinema have to try to blow stuff up with the excuse of "the rules." But everyone involved in writing this bill must remember that the parliamentarian advises the Senate, she doesn't make the rules, and her often arbitrary rulings can be challenged.
Likewise, everyone working on this bill needs to engage with Sinema and Manchin and put them on the spot. Both have insisted that they will not agree to a $3.5 trillion bill. Neither will say what they will be willing to cut out of the bill: will they take away the monthly child tax credit payments to young families? The expansion of Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing care? The safe housing? The environmental clean-up? The path to citizenship for immigrant families? They need to publicly provide some answers to those questions because they're putting every Democrats' job on the line by threatening this bill. They're potentially hurting everyone's constituents. Public commitments from them through the process are also essential to prevent them from pulling the rug out from under Schumer at the last minute. Because, again, they have proven that they cannot be trusted in the process. Anything that can be done to minimize their ability to sabotage this further needs to be done.
To that end, Schumer sent this letter to Senate Democrats Wednesday, going right to the heart of what the Democrats ExxonMobil depends on are going to be objecting to in the bill, the climate provisions. "The bottom line is this: we have very little time to prevent the most horrendous outcomes for our children and grandchildren," Schumer wrote. "But if we act now and act boldly, we can mitigate the worst effects of climate change and own the 21st-century clean energy economy."
"This package will invest in American industries, infrastructure, and agriculture to create millions of jobs with good wages while restoring American manufacturing competitiveness," he continued. "These investments will make clean energy, clean transportation, and energy-efficient homes more affordable for all Americans and will prioritize underserved and disadvantaged communities." He added a reminder that these policies "were included in the budget resolution” that already passed. “The relevant committees on both sides of the Capitol are working to craft in the reconciliation process," Schumer wrote.
Now is the time to put any wavering Democrats on the record—including the House Sabotage Squad—and make them say out loud what they're willing to sacrifice out of President Biden's agenda. What helps do they want to withhold from Americans? What part of climate change are they not ready to address? What part of all the great things the budget resolution envisions do they want to deny all of us?
Their first effort to derail the bill with the Sabotage Squad failed, mainly because Pelosi is very good at what she does. The deadline the House decided upon for a vote on the Senate bill is September 27. That's set, but it's not enough to decouple the bills, and Pelosi still has options. There's a united front of moderate and progressive Democrats behind Biden's plan, and it only would take three of them to withhold their vote on the Senate bill. If it passes, Pelosi also has the option of withholding the Senate bill from Biden until the reconciliation bill is also complete.
Ultimately, while the Sabotage Squad tried to upend the delicate equilibrium of this process, they failed. They came in demanding that they have an immediate vote on the Senate bill, and they got a date for a vote put into a procedural rule. The two bills are still linked, however hard the U.S. Chamber tries to argue otherwise, and the progressives still have leverage. They still have the opportunity to not vote for the bipartisan Senate bill if they don't get at least some of what they need in the reconciliation bill.