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WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden is adjusting the scope of his agenda to meet governance challenges with a tightly divided Congress and the complications of legislating during a raging pandemic.
Rather than immediately pursuing ambitious legislation to tackle climate change, the new administration could try to encompass provisions in a coronavirus aid bill. Biden’s team is also considering smaller-scale changes to the Affordable Care Act while filing the most controversial fight to create a public option to compete with private insurers.
Biden is already working on an array of executive actions to achieve some of his boldest priorities on climate change and immigration without having to navigate the congressional deadlock.
The move reflects a disappointing political reality for Biden, who campaigned on a pledge to solve the nation’s problems with measures that would rival the scope of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. But Democrats recognize that big legislative achievements are unlikely, even at the best of times when the party gets a slim majority in the Senate.
“Suppose my dream comes true,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, referring to a tight majority for his party. “I think we need to carefully craft any changes in the Affordable Care Act, or any other issue, like climate change, based on the reality of the 50-50 Senate.
“There are so many areas, which we like so much that Republicans don’t like, that it will be difficult to guide through the Senate under the circumstances,” added the Illinois Democrat.
Biden’s agenda hinges on the fate of two Senate second-round races in Georgia, which will be decided on January 5. If Democrats win both seats, the chamber will be equally divided, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris voting for the tiebreaker.
In this case, the items on Biden’s agenda stand a better chance of getting at least one vote. If Republicans remain in control, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may not make the priorities of the new president known.
Biden’s initial focus on Capitol Hill will be a multibillion-dollar coronavirus aid bill, which will certainly require significant political capital after lawmakers have stalled negotiations on Capitol Hill for months. .
The president-elect said on CNN on Thursday that if he supported a $ 900 billion compromise bill brought forward this week by a bipartisan group of negotiators, the bill is “a good start” but it is ” not enough ”and he plans to ask for more when he gets to the office. His team is already working on its own coronavirus relief program.
People close to Biden’s transition team say they see the stimulus as a potential avenue to implement certain climate reforms – like helping green jobs or moving the country towards a carbon-free energy system – that might be more difficult to do on their own. .
Durbin mentioned President Barack Obama’s first term as a precedent for what Biden will meet when he takes office.
Then Obama was forced to focus much of his initial energy on a stimulus package to deal with the financial crisis, and he spent months arguing with his own party over his healthcare overhaul. Obama also enacted financial regulatory reform, but other progressive priorities, such as cap-and-trade legislation and immigration reform, eventually faltered.
And he had a large majority in the House and Senate at the time.
Yet some Republicans say that while Biden approaches the negotiations in good faith, there are areas of common agreement. Rohit Kumar, co-head of PwC’s national tax services in Washington and former senior McConnell associate, said it was possible to find a compromise on some smaller-scale priorities, such as an infrastructure bill, dealing with the opioid crisis and even a police reform bill. .
“There are things in the middle, if Biden is ready to make deals in the middle – and that means being ready to make deals that progressive members don’t like, and maybe get them to vote no, and be in. peace with that, ”he said.
Indeed, speaking on CNN on Thursday, Biden expressed his optimism about making deals with the Republicans. He said when it comes to national security and the “economic necessity” of keeping people employed and revitalizing the economy, “there is plenty of room to work.
Still, he admitted, “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be hard.
But here the progressives, not the Republicans, could be the roadblock. Waleed Shahid, spokesman for the Liberal Democrats for Justice, said progressives were “worried and anxious” about Biden’s story of making what he called “toxic compromises with McConnell.”
“I think progressives are likely to play a key role in trying to push Democrats to have a backbone in any negotiation with Mitch McConnell,” he said. “People will hold him accountable for what he ran on.
Shaheed said he believes progressives could play a role in pushing the Biden administration to take a more “aggressive” approach and pursue executive actions to meet certain democratic priorities.
And indeed, Biden’s transition team has already worked on crafting a list of potential unilateral moves he could make very early on.
He plans to reverse Trump’s rollback of a number of public health and environmental protection measures the Obama administration has put in place. He will join the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement and revoke the travel ban from some Muslim-majority countries. It could also unilaterally restore protections for “dreamers” who were illegally brought to the United States as children.
But some of his biggest campaign commitments require action from Congress and are certain to face opposition from the GOP.
Biden has vowed to take major legislative action on immigration reform and gun control, but previous legislative efforts on both of these issues – with bipartisan support – have repeatedly failed.
He also pledged to reverse Trump’s tax cuts for the rich, write off some student loan debts, and make some public colleges free – all heavy lifting in a tightly divided or Republican-controlled Senate.
“It’s easy to be skeptical and pessimistic in this Senate,” Durbin said. “I hope they give us a chance to break through, to be constructive and to end some of the obstruction.”
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