The Path to 50+1 Begins
Hi there.
Joe Biden signaled early on that he hopes that his first round of COVID relief will be a bipartisan affair, but there has never been any doubt that he and congressional Democrats will take it any way they can get it. Senate Republicans have already been extremely critical of the American Rescue Plan, signaling that the legislation may not reach the filibuster-proof sixty votes to pass the Senate. That’s why Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have begun the process of moving the package forward as a budget reconciliation bill, which requires a simple majority (in this case, the fifty Democrats plus Vice President Harris) rather than the usual sixty votes. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about bipartisan support. It would be a huge early victory for the Biden Administration to get ten Republican Senators to approve of the legislation. But this move shows that Democrats are clear-eyed about the fact that chances of such bipartisan support are low.
Ultimately, because budget reconciliation is a tenuous and arduous process, it’s better for Democrats to start that process now and end up not needing it than to move forward with a normal bill only to find out that they’ll have to use it. Reconciliation takes a lot of time, and Democrats have an important deadline in mind: federal unemployment benefits begin to expire in March, and the American Rescue Plan will extend those benefits. The Wall Street Journal has the story on Majority Leader Schumer’s path forward, and if you’d like to get into the weeds, this piece from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities breaks down the budget reconciliation process. The WSJ also ran an op-ed from my fellow Hattiesburger, Robert St. John, urging lawmakers to include the RESTAURANTS Act in the American Rescue Plan.
But the Senate has their hands full at the moment, given the impending impeachment trial of Donald Trump. As The Hill reports, forty-five Senate Republicans voted yesterday to dismiss the article of impeachment on the grounds that trying a President after he has left office is unconstitutional. The claim doesn’t really hold water, but it shows just how opposed the vast majority of Republicans are to holding a trial. (As it happens, among those voting on the constitutionality of the trial was Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has misidentified the three branches of federal government outlined in the Constitution, and who recently suggested that President Biden’s inauguration should have been postponed, a sign that he may not be aware that the Constitution requires inauguration on January 20. A true constitutional expert.) And there are some valid concerns from the left about how the impeachment trial may impede the Senate’s ability to legislate, especially with that March deadline for COVID relief looming. But as Amy Davidson Sorkin argues in a recent column for the New Yorker, the trial is necessary for our democracy to hold. Troublingly, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who is set to preside over the trial, was briefly hospitalized yesterday. Politico provides commentary.
Thus far, the Senate has shown a fair job of walking while chewing gum. In addition to preparing for the impeachment trial and making the preliminary move for budget reconciliation, the Senate has been confirming more and more of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, to little fanfare. The Los Angeles Times examined the nominee list last month and found three trends: diversity, tenure in the Obama Administration, and, most importantly, expertise.
As we approach Black History Month, now seems like a good time to read this brief profile from the BBC on the trajectory of the Black Lives Matter movement, which, for better or worse, is far more decentralized than past Black civil rights movements.
Lastly, Martin Baron, editor of the Washington Post and former editor of the Boston Globe and Miami Herald, has announced his upcoming retirement, as WaPo reports. Baron was portrayed by Liev Schreiber in the award-winning 2015 film Spotlight, and edited more than a dozen Pulitzer-winning pieces of journalism. That’s quite a career. Cheers to that.
Thank you for caring enough to read.
Be safe. Wear a mask. You are loved.
Talk to you tomorrow.