Biden's Big Social Spending Bill Caught In Snags In The Senate

By Ariana Figueroa, Tennessee Lookout

December 17, 2021

The bill includes historic investments in child care and universal pre-K for 3-and-4 year-olds. It would also for the first time give Medicare the ability to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on the price of some prescription drugs, and offer coverage of hearing aids for seniors, among other things.

“Build Back Better is urgently needed to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health care, child care, and elder care,” Biden said. “Notwithstanding the unrelenting Republican obstruction — not a single Republican is willing to move forward on the bill — I am determined to see this bill enacted into law, to give America’s families the breathing room they deserve. We also need urgent action on climate change and other priorities in the Build Back Better plan.”

However, it’s become unclear if an extension to the child tax credit will be included, given Manchin’s stance.

When a Huffington Post reporter asked Manchin Wednesday if he supported the child tax credit, Manchin lost his temper and did not answer the question.

“This is bullshit,” he said. “You’re bullshit.”

Democrats temporarily expanded the child tax credit earlier this year under the American Rescue Plan from $2,000 to $3,600 for kids under 6, and to $3,000 for kids between 6 and 17.

Republicans have objected to the overall cost of the bill.

The legislation also includes $555 billion in climate spending and tax credits, primarily in the form of $320 billion in new and extended clean energy tax credits.

Rep. Kathy Castor, (D-Fla.), is also urging the Senate to not remove the ban on offshore drilling off the Atlantic, Pacific and the eastern Gulf of Mexico from its version of the bill. Manchin has raised opposition to offshore drilling bans, according to the New York Times.

“We have a moral obligation to urgently reduce our carbon dioxide and methane pollution, which are fueling catastrophic extreme weather events across the country,” Castor said in a statement. “That’s why we must permanently ban drilling on our coasts and address the pollution spewed by hundreds of abandoned, leaky rigs and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has not yet scheduled a vote on the bill, which is also undergoing scrutiny by the parliamentarian so that it complies with a process called reconciliation, which allows passage with a simple majority in the evenly divided Senate.

Schumer said he met with Biden and other Democratic senators about the Senate stalemate. “All I’m saying is that we had a very good discussion on voting rights and BBB,” Schumer said, according to Capitol Hill pool reports.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said that she had a virtual meeting with the president and vice president, along with Manchin, on passing voting protections.

Immigration policy also hangs in the balance.

The House passed its version of Build Back Better in late November, and wrapped in temporary work and deportation protections through a parole program that allows some undocumented people to change their status to prevent deportation.

The Senate is now waiting for a decision by the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who is nonpartisan and provides advice and help on Senate rules and procedures, on whether the immigration provisions in the package can be passed through reconciliation.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night that MacDonough rejected Democrats’ immigration proposals.

Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that he was “disappointed” about the parliamentarian’s ruling, according to Capitol Hill pool reports.

“We’re considering what options remain,” he said.

Many immigration advocates and House progressives were not satisfied with those provisions as they pushed Congress to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented people in the bill.

Democrats have tried to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented people through the reconciliation package, but were blocked by the Senate parliamentarian from including those provisions.

Many advocates and progressive Democrats have argued that the parliamentarian is merely an adviser and that the Senate could overrule her opinion.

“Throughout the entire reconciliation process, we have worked to ensure that immigration reform was not treated as an afterthought,” Schumer and others said in their statement Thursday night.

“The majority of Americans support our efforts to provide legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States because it would raise wages, create good-paying jobs, enrich our economy, and improve the lives of all Americans.

“The American people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral and economic imperative, and we stand with the millions of immigrant families across the country who deserve better and for whom we will not stop fighting.”

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