House approves Biden social policy bill
Next stop is the Senate - after Thanksgiving
Democrats get a centerpiece of the Biden agenda through the House. The Senate goes home in gridlock on a defense bill. And House Republicans suddenly LOVE proxy voting. This is a special edition of “Regular Order” for November 20, 2021.
BUILD BACK BETTER. One week after celebrating approval of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democratic lawmakers gathered in the Well of the House for a second straight Friday - this time cheering the approval of a $1.85 trillion reconciliation package, which was approved on a vote of 220-213.
PELOSI. Democrats chanted, “Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!” as Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the dais to congratulate her Democratic flock. “This bill is monumental,” Pelosi told reporters after the vote. “It's historic. It's transformative. It's bigger than anything that we've ever done.”
DEFEAT. For a second straight week, most Republicans were furious with the outcome, as their side of the aisle was again empty when the vote ended.
GOP. “Democrats are embracing a socialist takeover faster than ever before,” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). “The Democrats’ tax and spending spree won’t build back better,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), “it will only make life harder for Americans already struggling to get by.”
SCOREBOARD. But the GOP arguments have failed to carry the day so far - and their best chance to derail this bill lies in the mercurial ways of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), rather than any arguments Republicans will bring to the table in coming weeks.
BIDEN AGENDA. For all of the flak that President Biden and Democrats are getting right now, they are edging closer to a major policy trifecta in 2021. Already law is a $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan. Next was the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. And now Build Back Better is headed to the Senate. All with minimal majorities.
LEGISLATIVE SUCCESS. Yes, Biden's poll numbers stink right now. But if Democrats in the Senate can somehow convince Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to stay on board, it would complete a trio of huge legislative victories for the party - and most importantly - for the President to run on in the 2022 midterms.
SENATE. Next stop is after Thanksgiving in the Senate. “We will act as quickly as possible to get this bill to President Biden’s desk and deliver help for middle-class families,” said Majority Leader Charles Schumer.
TIMING. Just as the House vote was probably helped by a desire by lawmakers to get home for Thanksgiving, Democrats are probably hoping the Christmas break can produce a positive result in the Senate as well. Don’t write off the possibility of one more victory this year for President Biden.
PROXY VOTING. As House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke for a record 8 hours and 32 minutes on Thursday night (and early Friday morning), one of the items he loudly denounced was the use of remote proxy voting in the House. His call to get rid of remote voting drew hearty applause from GOP lawmakers.
GOP REMOTE. But McCarthy might want to talk to his GOP colleagues. On Thursday and Friday, Republicans actually accounted for more than 50 percent of the proxy votes cast in the House. You read that right. The party which rails against proxy voting was actually casting more proxy votes than Democrats.
VOTE 383. Let's start with roll call 383 on Thursday, which was on the rule governing final debate for the Build Back Better bill. 85 House members voted by proxy. 50 of them were Republicans. 35 were Democrats.
VOTE 384. On Friday, the first vote was on a GOP motion to return the Build Back Better bill to committee. 96 House members voted by proxy. 53 of those lawmakers were Republicans. 43 were Democrats.
VOTE 385. On Friday's final passage of the Build Back Better bill, 98 lawmakers voted by proxy. Again - a majority came from the GOP. 54 proxy votes were cast by Republicans and 44 were from Democrats.
SUBSCRIBE. If you don’t get the daily ‘Regular Order’ please consider giving yourself a subscription to stay on top of the twists and turns as we head into the 2022 midterms. Or maybe you know someone who just wants straight news from Capitol Hill. That’s what I’ve been doing since the Reagan Administration.
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION. The Senate left town Friday on a somewhat sour legislative note, unable to move forward on a major defense policy bill. Democrats had tried on Thursday to put forward a deal to vote on 20 amendments split between the parties, but a group of GOP Senators objected.
CLOTURE. The next option for Democrats was to file cloture to force an end to debate. A procedural vote was set for the Monday after Thanksgiving. Will Republicans filibuster the defense bill? Stay tuned.
THE SENATE. The inability to have a basic floor debate on the defense bill was yet another black mark for the Senate, which has not been acting like the ‘World’s Most Deliberative Body’ in recent years. So much time is now taken on nominations - that there almost isn’t time to actually legislate.
MASK FINES. If the Congress works until Christmas, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene R-GA could find herself fined as much as $100,000 this year for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor - that would be well over half of her $174,000 Congressional salary. My column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. Greene started the week with $60,500 in fines. The House was in session five days - at $2,500 per day - that’s another $12,500. But Greene isn’t short on money. As I detailed in my column, she recently bought between $250,000 and $500,000 in T-bills.
SUNNY DAYS. The folks at CPAC - the Conservative Political Action Conference - have made clear who is not invited for their big political gathering in Orlando in late February.
COVID. If you haven't checked of late, a new surge in Coronavirus cases may have started bubbling up in the U.S., with the impact being felt mainly outside the South. Cases are up dramatically in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and have also jumped in New England.
POOP SIGNAL. The increase in COVID cases in Massachusetts was forecast by wastewater checks in the Bay State, which in recent days shows a big jump in the detection of Coronavirus.
AVERAGE CASES. Nationally, new daily cases are up over 30 percent in the last two weeks, with the average now at 95,000 per day. That’s already higher than the summer 2020 surge. Deaths are still averaging over 1,000 per day.
MUSE OF HISTORY. November 20, 1922. As Congress returned for a special lame-duck session on this date, lawmakers resumed efforts to give a cash bonus to four million veterans of World War I. Two GOP members immediately filed bills to offset the cost of the bonus with new taxes on alcohol. One bill proposed a 2.75 percent tax on beer, while a second plan envisioned raising enough money through a new tax on beer and wine to wipe out the national debt. President Harding had vetoed a bonus bill approved by Congress before the midterm election, arguing it was fiscally irresponsible.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House next has votes on November 30.
The Senate has votes on November 29.
President Biden’s daily schedule link.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree. Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
I can never understand how a politician can scream about something like proxy voting and then vote by proxy. Is it that they can compartmentalize their hypocrisy so that they can shamelessly walk around in public or is "it's just politics" enough justification for them? By the way, both sides do this of course but I would be so humiliated I couldn't face anyone.
I almost love these surprise Saturday newsletters. I say "almost" not because I don't like hearing from Jamie but because it usually indicates Congress doing something stupid. ( I think that's vague enough so no one can tell my thoughts on today's news. )