Democrats face scaled-back agenda after setbacks

Democrats are confronting the reality of a scaled-back agenda as they try to move past high-profile setbacks that dominated the tail end of President Biden's first year in office.

After pledging to go "big and bold" when they were swept into power in 2021, Democrats are readjusting their strategy as they head toward November. Republicans are feeling increasingly optimistic about their chances amid painful poll numbers for Biden, high-profile Democratic infighting and the economy and the coronavirus ranking among voters' top concerns.

Democrats are eyeing turning their focus toward bipartisan bills and legislative housekeeping like funding the government and confirming Biden's nominees on the floor, while trying to figure out a path forward on a pared-down social and climate spending without boxing themselves in with a hard deadline.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said while "most of the things that we're proposing are popular with most Americans," they also need to "talk about the reality of the Senate and the 50-50 status," which requires some GOP support for most legislation.

"We have to have an agenda that is not only appealing to voters but is realistic on Capitol Hill," Durbin said, adding that it was OK to have an "ambitious agenda but it has to come to the harsh reality of producing votes."

Though Democrats were able to pass a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill last year without GOP help and struck a bipartisan infrastructure deal that garnered 19 Republican votes, they were dealt twin blows over the past month: First, when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) daggered a House-passed roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) bill, and then last week when Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) voted, as expected, against a change to the Senate rules that would have let a voting rights bill bypass the 60-vote legislative filibuster.

The setbacks sparked fierce frustration within the caucus.

Manchin suggested he thought Democrats didn't have the right priorities and should be focused on inflation, the coronavirus and employment "so I would think get your priorities in order - we all should."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he believed that Manchin and Sinema, who he opened the door to supporting primary challenges to, had "undermined the president of the United States" and that Democrats should go even "stronger" on the spending bill to show what they support, even if Manchin and Sinema join Republicans to oppose it.

"We've been negotiating for five months. That approach has failed miserably," Sanders said. "We've got to move in a new direction."

But the White House and top Democrats are setting their sights on trying to revive a smaller version of BBB and focus on smaller bills that are less likely to fire up the base but would let them rack up bipartisan wins.

Biden opened the door this week to trying to pass "chunks" of his sweeping social and climate spending bill. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters the bill "may be more limited, but it is still significant."

After watching themselves miss deadline after deadline, Democrats and the White House are being cautious about putting a hard timeline on when they'll be able to reach an agreement.

"No, I don't know what the schedule will be for that," Durbin said, asked about Democrats turning back to BBB.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was equally cagey, sidestepping predicting when Democrats would have a pared-back deal except to say that he wants it "as soon as possible."

Even as Democrats start to talk about a so-called BBB 2.0, they still appear a long way from a deal, which will require tough decisions about what long-held priorities they will have to leave behind without sacrificing votes they can't afford to lose.

Manchin, who will be critical to any agreement, told reporters late last week that he hadn't yet heard from the White House and predicted that negotiations, once they pick up again, will be "starting from scratch."

Aides are skeptical of quick action and Democratic leadership is filling their floor schedule with other items, for now. Congress has until Feb. 18 to fund the government, which is expected to take up a lot of the oxygen in the Capitol once lawmakers return on Jan. 28. Leadership and top appropriators have been negotiating and believe they are making progress on a full-year funding deal that would potentially be linked to more coronavirus relief.

If they can't meet the deadline, they'll need to decide on how long to make the next continuing resolution, which extends current funding levels.

And lawmakers in both the House and Senate are eyeing potential areas of bipartisanship.

After the Democrats' voting rights push hit a wall, Manchin and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) talked up their bipartisan negotiations on trying to reform the Electoral Count Act and provide protections for election officials and poll workers, who have seen a wave of threats in the wake of the 2020 election that former President Trump falsely claimed was stolen.

"We're going to make something happen. We're going to get a bunch of people together, Democrats and Republicans and get a good piece of legislation," Manchin said.

The House, meanwhile, is set to focus on burn pit legislation and introduce a bill meant to be its response to an anti-China competitiveness measure that is a big priority for Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and passed by the Senate last year. Schumer announced late last year that the House had agreed to form a conference committee to work out their differences.

And both chambers are eyeing action to penalize Russia if it invades Ukraine, amid ramped up tensions as Moscow has amassed troops along the border.

Pelosi, in a Dear Colleague letter outlining what the House will work on next, noted that the Foreign Affairs Committee will advance legislation that would slap sanctions on Russian industries, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials if Moscow invades Ukraine.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Democrats, including Schumer, introduced the bill in the Senate earlier this month. Menendez is negotiating with Republicans - including Sen. James Risch (Idaho), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee - who have offered their own legislation.

"We are working as we speak with various Republican colleagues who have their own ideas as to how to deter Putin," Menendez told MSNBC, adding that the endgame is to "speak with one voice and send a very clear message that we stand with Ukraine."

Democrats are hopeful that they'll be able to cut a bipartisan deal on the sanctions and they are also talking with the three GOP senators - Rob Portman (Ohio), Kevin Cramer (N.D.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) - who recently traveled to Ukraine as they look for a path for 60 votes in the Senate.

"Obviously, the path runs through Senator Menendez and Senator Risch," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who was part of the group who traveled to Ukraine, adding that he thought Risch was "amenable to working something out and he and Menendez know how to work together."