Build Back Better Takes Back Seat to Democrats’ Election-Law Push

Manchin says there are no current negotiations on education, healthcare and climate bill

By Andrew Duehren, WSJ, January 4-5

Jan. 4, 2022 5:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats put the party’s marquee economic package on ice, shifting their attention to passing elections legislation as they consider how to overhaul the roughly $2 trillion education, healthcare and climate bill.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), whose support Democrats need to advance the bill in the 50-50 Senate, last month said he was opposed to the package, scuttling Democrats’ hopes of quickly passing the centerpiece of President Biden’s legislative agenda. Mr. Manchin is pushing for the party to restructure the bill, which would provide funding for initiatives including healthcare subsidies, child care subsidies and housing.

But lawmakers haven’t yet started the process of doing so. While Mr. Manchin indicated Tuesday that he could be open to reopening discussions on the bill, he raised many of his same concerns about it, including its possible impact on inflation.

“I’ve never turned down talks with anybody, I really haven’t,” he said, while adding he wasn’t participating in any talks on the bill. “There is no negotiations going on at this time,” he said.

A White House official said the Biden administration was in touch with several lawmakers about a path forward on the bill, the Build Back Better Act.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Tuesday that he touched on Build Back Better in discussions with Mr. Manchin over the break and that the Senate would hold a vote on the bill.

“We will keep working until we get something done,” he said.

With the future of the economic package in doubt, Senate Democrats are instead focusing on an effort to pass elections legislation. Because Republicans are unanimously opposed to the elections bill, blocking it several times last year, Democrats are discussing possible changes to the 60-vote threshold for advancing most legislation in the Senate.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the party would turn back to the economic package after working on the elections legislation—and possible rules changes for passing it.

“We’re focused on voting rights, as we should be, and I think the White House is joining us in that effort, and clearly we’ll return to Build Back Better as soon as that is done,” he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration was in step with Mr. Schumer regarding the elections push. “We’re gonna work with him on getting that done. But that doesn’t change our commitment to Build Back Better,” she said.

Democrats are using a special legislative process called reconciliation, which allows lawmakers to advance budget related bills with just a simple majority, in their effort to pass Build Back Better.

Passing legislation through reconciliation requires lawmakers to adhere to a series of strict rules for the bill’s measures, with a provision’s eligibility for passage debated in a series of disputes adjudicated by the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian. That vetting process for Build Back Better has largely halted, according to people familiar with it.

One of Mr. Manchin’s primary concerns with Build Back Better has been its overall design. To bring the overall price tag down into a range acceptable for Mr. Manchin and other centrists, Democrats proposed funding many of its programs for the short-term, hoping to renew funding for them in later legislation.

Mr. Manchin has objected to that strategy, arguing that it disguises the full cost of the bill’s programs. He has said the party should select a smaller number of programs and fund them long-term.

Last month, before he announced his opposition to the bill, Mr. Manchin gave to the White House a roughly $1.75 trillion proposal that called for funding climate initiatives, subsidies for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act and universal prekindergarten for 10 years, according to people familiar with it. Mr. Manchin said on Tuesday that he was broadly supportive of the party’s efforts to offer tax incentives for reducing carbon emissions.

“The climate thing is one that we probably can come to an agreement much easier than anything else,” he said.

Absent from Mr. Manchin’s proposal was an extension of enhancements to the child tax credit, one of the party’s top priorities in the bill. As part of an earlier piece of legislation, Democrats increased the size of the tax credit for many households, made it available in a series of monthly cash payments and offered it to Americans who pay no income taxes.

Those changes expired at the end of the year, and Democrats had sought to extend them for one more year as part of Build Back Better. Mr. Manchin has criticized several elements of the enhanced child tax credit, pushing to limit the eligibility of higher-income households and require recipients to prove that they are working.

While many Democrats are resistant to Mr. Manchin’s demands on the child tax credit, some have started outlining a package in line with his requirements on the overall design of the bill. Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) has floated a package that focuses on healthcare subsidies, an enhanced child tax credit, lowering prescription drug prices and climate initiatives.