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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Happy Thursday morning!

At around 8 p.m. last night, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on 22 stalled Biden administration nominations, including Rahm Emanuel for U.S. ambassador to Japan and Nicholas Burns for U.S. ambassador to China. 

This move is aimed at trying to pressure Republicans. Plus, it’s Schumer’s only option at this point. He’s stalled on everything else — including these nominations. Votes on these nominations won’t even start until Friday and could extend into the weekend absent a time agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Schumer may even add more. We’ll see.

Senate Democrats will hold a caucus lunch at 12:45 p.m. to discuss the state of play.

The situation they face is this: The Build Back Better Act is stalled. As is any voting rights bill, where Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) aren’t going to circumvent the filibuster, meaning no bill will pass in the face of unyielding GOP opposition. The most likely scenario is that the Senate plows through these nominees with or without a time agreement, and then leaves for Christmas.

A key question now is what does President Joe Biden do? Does he keep negotiating with Manchin, despite the fact that their two sessions this week have gone poorly? Does he ask for a delay in any Senate vote in order to give more time for the Democratic leadership and committee chairs to work through some of these unresolved issues, such as SALT? Biden was forced to agree to similar delays on the House side, which caused an uproar both times it happened. Yet ultimately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team were able to push the BBB through the chamber. Will Biden give Schumer and Senate Democrats similar political cover now?

Although Schumer has been hesitant to admit it publicly, the Senate wasn’t ever likely to pass BBB before Christmas. Yes, as a party leader, you’re forced to set these arbitrary deadlines in order to spur action. Senators don’t move on issues until they have to do so. But arbitrary deadlines are dangerous because they typically are, well, arbitrary and not always helpful politically. Or in this case, logistically.

We wanted to review a few dynamics when it comes to the BBB:

→ The momentum is gone. That’s a problem for Biden and Schumer. When the House passed the Build Back Better Act a month ago, Biden and progressives hailed it as a transformative moment. Yes, Republican Glenn Youngkin had trounced Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race in early November, an upset win that augured poorly for Democrats in 2022. Yes, inflation was spiking and Biden’s poll numbers were falling. But that House vote, after months of delays, was supposed to turn things around. The Senate would approve the bill in a few weeks, and Democrats would end the year on a high note. With the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and BBB, Democrats would have a strong record to run on in the midterms. Now that’s falling apart.

→ Is Manchin to blame? It’s easy to just reflexively say yes to this question. Consider this: As our friend Manu Raju of CNN points out, Manchin wants to keep the price tag for the overall package at $1.7 trillion. But Manchin also wants to extend the Child Tax Credit for 10 years, which would cost more than $1 trillion. Manchin’s view, as Manu also notes, is that Democrats should drop other programs in order to make everything fit within the $1.7 trillion framework. Manchin says he’s being fiscally responsible. Senate Democrats say he’s finding different ways to say no.

Why it is his fault: If all 50 Democrats had agreement on the bill, they could go to the floor while the parliamentarians continue working through the package.

Why it’s not: Democrats are fighting among themselves over SALT and immigration. That’s not Manchin’s fault. And the parliamentarian hasn’t finished scrubbing the bill for possible Byrd Rule problem. And that isn’t Manchin’s fault. 

So let’s be real. It’s not just Manchin. He’s a big problem for the leadership and White House, easily the most high profile headache, but hardly the only one. They don’t have the text of the legislation finished. The parliamentarian is still grinding away. Sinema hasn’t publicly endorsed the package, which makes some Senate Democrats uneasy.

As we mentioned before, a lot of the focus now will shift to Biden and White House officials. It will be largely up to the president to broker a deal with Manchin – and Schumer needs the president to do it, since he hasn’t been able to force the West Virginia Democrat’s hand.

WATCHING THE LEFT

House progressives watching the Senate — warily

House progressives were skeptical when they sent the infrastructure bill to President Joe Biden without guarantees on what the Senate would do on the Build Back Better Act. 

Turns out their skepticism was warranted.

Some progressives, such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of Congressional Progressive Caucus, continue to insist it’ll get done, because to do otherwise would be a huge failure for both Biden and the entire Democratic Party. But there’s a lot of nervousness on the left at this moment as progressives watch the Senate drama unfold.

Jayapal is always interesting to follow as a leader of the growing progressive wing of the party. Throughout the Senate process, she has remained engaged and has been careful not to whack the president or moderates too aggressively.

We spoke to Jayapal Wednesday evening to take her temperature on the current situation. Jayapal said she talked to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, and she remained upbeat about the BBB outlook.

“I just think we have to get it done this year,” Jayapal told us. “There’s a lot of problems with it sliding into January. The Child Tax Credit expiring is a huge problem. But also bigger than that, 85% of the president’s agenda is in this bill.”

Jayapal added: “I still believe that the president committed to us that he was going to be able to deliver on Build Back Better and the framework that he laid out. And I still think he’s going to be able to do that. I still think we cannot accept it will be pushed into next year.”

But the Washington Democrat also had a message for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has refused to support BBB so far.

“We have to remember this – and Joe Manchin has to remember this – this is the agenda that we ran on. And it is the thing that will cut costs for families,” she said.

“God bless Sen. Manchin, but he does love to keep everyone guessing until the very end,” Jayapal noted.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who opposed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill because she didn’t like dropping the link between BBB and the infrastructure package, issued a sort of “I told you so” type statement on Wednesday.

Bush pointed out that six House Democrats – all members of the Squad – voted against the BIF last month because they wanted the Senate to finish the reconciliation package first. The infrastructure legislation only passed because 13 House Republicans crossed the aisle to back the measure, for which they were hammered by their own party.

Take a look at this Bush quote:

“After spending months building support for the President’s entire agenda, I voted ‘No’ on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package because the Build Back Better Act had not yet passed the Senate, and the Senators who had been blocking lifesaving funding had not yet made any public commitments to support the bill. I put my reputation on the line to make it clear that if we want to deliver the entire, much-needed, and long overdue Biden agenda, we must not undermine our power as a government nor the power of the people by placing the fate of Build Back Better at the feet of one Senator: Joe Manchin. 

"I dealt with the unfair criticism that came my way because St. Louis so desperately needs the Build Back Better Act – from climate action and universal preschool, to community violence prevention and the expanded Child Tax Credit. Today’s reporting that the Build Back Better Act may be put on the shelf for the foreseeable future is alarming.”

The House is out now and won’t come back until Jan. 10 – unless somehow the Senate passes the BBB in the next two weeks, which we think is really unlikely.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

The Dem relatives that Biden nominated

The Biden administration announced a number of nominations yesterday for the federal bench and high-level ambassadorships. When we were reviewing the nominees, some of the last names on the list stood out to us. 

Kennedy, Pocan, Meek — Were these nominees related to the politicians that share their surname? The answer turned out to be yes. These connections got us thinking: how many other nominees have familial relations to leading Democratic politicians?

Now we’re not suggesting any of these nominees aren’t worthy of being selected. A White House officials noted they are all well-qualified and were selected for these posts based on their own credentials. We have no reason to doubt that. But let’s also acknowledge having a family member in the business doesn’t hurt either.

Below we’ve assembled a list that shows familial links in a number of the Biden administration’s high-level nominees.

→ Judge Leslie Meek, the ex-wife of former Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), was nominated in December for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

→ Judge William Pocan, the brother of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), was nominated in December for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

→ Gayle Manchin, the wife of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), was confirmed in April to be the co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Gayle Manchin is a former educator and former West Virginia secretary of Education and the Arts.

→ Brett Holmgren, the husband of White House Counsel Dana Remus, was confirmed as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research in September. Holmgren served a variety of roles in the Obama administration’s National Security Council and also served as special assistant to the deputy secretary of Defense. 

→ Darrell Leroy Dorgan, the brother of former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission in September. Darrell Dorgan is a former TV anchor and served on the American Battle Monuments Commission under former President Barack Obama. Former Sen. Dorgan served with Biden, of course.

→ ​​Kurt DelBene, the husband of Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), was nominated in November to be assistant secretary for information tech and chief information officer for Veterans Affairs. Kurt Delbene is an executive vice president at Microsoft and worked as a high-level aide in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration.

→ Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, was nominated in December to be ambassador to Australia. Kennedy served as the ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017.

And this last one is not a Democratic connection, but is related to a close friend of Biden from his Senate days:

→ Cindy McCain, wife of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was confirmed in November to be ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.

FRONTS

MOMENTS

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing. 

9:55 a.m.: Vice President Kamala Harris will speak about the infrastructure law at the AFL-CIO.

1:30 p.m.: Biden will award the Medal of Honor to multiple recipients in the East Room. First Lady Jill Biden, Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend. 

3 p.m.: Biden and Harris will meet with members of the White House Covid-19 Response Team on the Omicron variant in the Roosevelt Room. 

3:15 p.m.: Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a press briefing along with Deputy National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. 

4:20 p.m.: Harris will swear in Brian Nelson as under secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Crimes.

FRONTS

NYT

→ “Meadows and the Band of Loyalists: How They Fought to Keep Trump in Power,” by Katie Benner, Catie Edmondson, Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer

→ “Fox News Hosts Take the Offensive About Texts to Meadows,” by Jim Windolf and John Koblin

WaPo

→ “Role as Trump’s gatekeeper puts Meadows in legal jeopardy — and at odds with Trump,” by Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany

→ “Meadows referral creates new legal, political challenge for Garland and DOJ,” by Matt Zapotosky

WSJ

→ “Fed Officials Project Three Interest Rate Rises in 2022 and Accelerate Stimulus Wind-Down,” by Nick Timiraos

AP

→ “US faces a double coronavirus surge as omicron advances,” by Laura Ungar and Carla K. Johnson

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images