WASHINGTON D.C.– The Congressional Black Caucus helped the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act get passed last week. President Biden called it a victory, so did the New York Times.
Six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) voted against the infrastructure bill because the popular Build Back Better Bill was not brought to a vote at the same time.
The deal Biden brokered with conservative democrats and CPC allowed a vote to proceed on the infrastructure bill with the promise from five conservative Democrats that they would vote “yes” on the Build Back Better bill (BBB) no later than the week of November 15, pending a financial report from the Congressional Budget Office.
Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner called the promise of conservative House democrats “foolishness” and said that if they are committed to voting for BBB “no later than November 15, they can do it now”.
The BBB has much in it that the majority of American support: childcare, paid leave, healthcare, climate action, housing, education, and a roadmap to citizenship for the Dreamers. The infrastructure bill passed easily because some Republicans supported it. It’s a business-friendly bill.
Conservatives may balk at voting for the BBB by November 19 because the CBO may not deliver its report by then.
At least 20 progressive democrats don’t trust them to keep their word and say it’s a red herring, anyway, because none of those conservatives voted against the infrastructure bill and the CBO said it is expected to increase the deficit by $250 billion.
Analyses of spending and revenue conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department, the White House and the Joint Committee on Taxation all found the BBB is either neutral or may actually reduce the deficit.
If the BBB comes to the House floor by Thanksgiving and if it survives more cuts—the original BBB was $3.5 trillion and it’s already been whittled down to $1.75 trillion–– it still has to pass the Senate. Senators Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are two Democrats-in-Name-Only (DINOS) who could block its passage.
While all this maneuvering and drama is playing out in Washington, when or whether, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act or the For the People Act (HR 1) comes to a vote in Congress is worrying voting rights activists across the country. Those two bills were not included in the deal making last week.
“Democracy is in peril. There are too many in this country who fail to recognize the urgency of the moment,” said Wade Henderson. He is CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the oldest civil rights coalition in the US.
Henderson told ethnic media reporters he was “deeply disappointed” the Senate did not advance the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act last week. He noted between January and September this year, 19 states enacted 33 new laws that restrict the freedom to vote.
He said the leadership conference published 13 state reports that document “chapter and verse the pervasive and pernicious racial discrimination in voting”.
“The evidence could not be clearer that Senate action is necessary to restore the Voting Rights Act,” Henderson said.
Voting rights used to have bipartisan support. Republicans supported the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act by a vote of 98-0. Thirteen current Republican senators voted for reauthorization as members of Congress.
“Their unwillingness to support the legislation today demonstrates how hyper-partisanship has overtaken longstanding bipartisan support for voting rights when we need it more than ever,” Henderson said.
On Indian reservations, there are structural barriers to voting. People don’t have house addresses for mail and if you want to vote you have to drive hours on bumpy dirt roads to vote outside the reservation. Since many Native Americans are poor they don’t have good transportation, a lot of Indians just don’t bother.
“The simple fact is we need federal protection in Indian Country,” said Jacqueline De Leon, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund. She said two lawsuits in Montana that forced on-reservation voting had immediate impact.
“Turnout increased from an appalling 30% to 70%. Natives vote if they are provided a fair opportunity but they are too often not given that chance,” she said.
Indian activists in Alaska lobbied Senator Lisa Murkowski and because of their efforts, Murskowski voted to put the Voting Rights Act on the Senate floor for debate.
A professor of Political Science at Indiana University was flabbergasted the Democrats didn’t link the BBB to voting rights legislation.
Jeffrey Isaac works in an ivory tower and doesn’t expect anybody in Washington to read his blog but perhaps they should. He has a very persuasive solution to the impasse between Biden and the Republicans.
“It’s simple. Why can’t Progressive Democrats get with Congressional leadership, and with the White House, and then announce a proposal tailor-made for Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema:
They will agree to support the much-scaled back, $1.75 Build Back Better plan, and to vote to pass the “Bipartisan” Infrastructure Bill immediately, in exchange for immediate passage of the Freedom to Vote Act engineered by none other than Joe Manchin.
Manchin doesn’t like ambitious social programs? Okay for now.
Manchin doesn’t think family leave is appropriate for reconciliation? Okay for now.
Manchin says he cares about voting rights and believes in the Freedom to Vote Act?
Fine. Then let him agree to override the arcane Senate filibuster rule, right now, for this pressing legislation, in the name of constitutional democracy and forward movement on social legislation.
Manchin can have his “physical infrastructure” bill now, and Progressives can have meaningful voting and election legislation now. And the details of the “Build Back Better” bill can be worked out in the coming days and weeks.
The Freedom to Vote Act is a pretty straightforward piece of legislation. If Democrats are serious, they can pass it in both Houses in a matter of days, and then pass the Infrastructure Bill at the same time, with the understanding that “Build Back Better” will follow soon thereafter.”
That’s not what happened in Washington last week but you never know. Maybe somebody there will pay attention to ideas other than their own.
