Democrats in pre-holiday push

Schumer’s note gives timeline for $2 trillion spending package

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are aiming to vote and approve a roughly $2 trillion package to overhaul the nation’s health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws before Christmas, hoping to muscle through a jam-packed schedule to deliver the remaining piece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

Writing to lawmakers Monday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., affirmed the aggressive timeline, warning that there are “more long days and nights, and potentially weekends” ahead of the chamber for it to finish a fuller array of legislative legwork before the end of the year.

The $ 2 trillion proposal, known as the Build Back Better Act, aims to expand Medicare coverage, invest new sums to combat climate change, authorize universal prekindergarten and provide new aid to low-income families, all financed through tax increases targeting rich Americans and corporations. House Democrats adopted the bill in November, teeing it up for the Senate, where party lawmakers at times have been divided over its size and scope.

The Senate still must rejigger critical parts of the bill to ensure it is compatible with the process known as reconciliation. The legislative maneuver allows Democrats to approve the legislation with 51 votes rather than the usual 60, sidestepping a guaranteed Republican filibuster in the narrowly divided chamber.

But reconciliation carries its own set of potential headaches, as Democrats must ensure every element of their sprawling tax-and-spending proposal directly implicates the federal budget — or else it is at risk of being stripped out of the measure entirely. Anticipating those issues, lawmakers have been meeting behind the scenes with the chamber’s parliamentarian, a customary process that Schumer said is expected to continue “this week and next.”

The path to passage still threatens to be an uphill battle, as Senate Democrats continue to contend with dissent in their own ranks. A pivotal swing vote, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has yet to offer his endorsement of the legislation, even after months of wrangling with the White House.

Manchin instead has called on his party to hit pause on its efforts, arguing that an uptick in inflation — and other issues, including new coronavirus variants — should prompt lawmakers to hold off on approving trillions in new spending. The U.S. government is set to release fresh data this week illustrating changes in consumer prices in November, which could further reshuffle the political landscape.

And Democrats have not settled on some of the finer details of the bill. Manchin continues to battle with lawmakers over the inclusion of a program to provide paid family and medical leave to millions of Americans. And other party lawmakers are locked in a dispute over a state-and-local tax proposal that some liberals see as too generous to the wealthy.

The wrangling reflects the vast work ahead of Congress just 25 days before the end of the year. Democrats and Republicans still have to approve a bill that would authorize nearly $778 billion in defense spending, for example, which has been mired in bitter disputes around U.S. policy toward China and Russia.

Some lawmakers also have discussed using the annual Pentagon measure to address the unrelated yet critical issue of the debt ceiling, which lets the country borrow to pay its bills. Congress has nine days until the government may begin to face difficulty issuing new debt, according to the Treasury Department, though other analyses suggest there’s more time.

Speaking to reporters Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he hopes the chamber can address the debt limit as soon as this week. But he cautioned that the issue is “up in the air” as Democrats and Republicans work out a potential deal in the Senate. Lawmakers from both parties in recent weeks have labored to avert another political showdown, after GOP lawmakers initially refused to supply votes in the narrowly divided chamber as part of a broader opposition to Biden’s spending priorities.

Schumer said Monday that Democrats plan to address the issue soon, declining to offer details. But he praised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for engaging in productive talks, raising the prospect that Congress could come to a resolution on the debt ceiling well before the debate can wreak any political and economic havoc.

In setting a Christmas deadline for the Build Back Better Act, meanwhile, Schumer sought to continue a strategy of keeping pressure on the Senate.

Biden himself sounded this note on the spending bill: “As early as we can get it. [But] We want to get it done no matter how long it takes.”