Democrats slim down ambitions after back-to-back failures

After two strikeouts, don't expect Senate Democrats to immediately swing for the fences again. There’s little appetite in the Democratic majority to publicly fall short on high-profile priorities so soon after the party’s failures to both weaken the filibuster to pass election reform and to approve President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion social spending bill. Instead, many Democrats are itching to get back to voting on bills that have plenty of GOP support, such as a new deal to fund the government or changing antitrust laws. Sure, Democrats will try to revive their signature domestic spending bill, and they say they will keep fighting for election reform. They might even change the Electoral Count Act. None of that, however, is expected to play out on the Senate floor anytime soon. “My advice to leadership is to find those things where we really have a solid amount of momentum, where you clearly have 10 or more Republicans,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who is working on a bill to protect wildlife that has more than a dozen GOP co-sponsors.

In interviews with Democrats across the ideological spectrum, senators largely described wanting to put some points on the board within the confines of the chamber’s supermajority requirement. But it’s also fair to say the party is not entirely united on the path forward. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Wednesday's failed vote a “good start” and said he wanted to see more of it. He argued that the Democrats’ “current direction is failing” and the party should force votes on Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill regardless of whether it will succeed. That, Sanders said, would put the GOP on the record as opposing Democrats’ plans to expand child care and fight climate change. “We’ve been negotiating with two senators for two months and it has gotten us nowhere, so we need a new course of action. And I think what we have got to do now is to make it clear where 48 of us stand,” Sanders said Thursday. “Right now, we are playing into Republicans’ hands by not having them vote against anything.” Nonetheless, the party’s more modest approach was on display Thursday afternoon as the Senate headed home for a recess after Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) joined Republicans to block a rules change that could have allowed elections legislation to pass by a simple majority. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set up votes for next month on a large tranche of nominees, which Democrats can confirm easily without GOP support.