Democrats met privately on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as they searched for an elusive compromise on a domestic policy and climate package, pressing to resolve crucial disagreements over health benefits, paid leave, environmental provisions and how to pay for the entire plan. As Democrats seek to pacify certain centrist holdouts balking at critical pieces of the bill, party leaders are lobbying rank-and-file lawmakers, particularly liberals, to accept a measure that will be far smaller than an initial $3.5 trillion blueprint that passed Congress earlier this year. House Democrats huddled on Tuesday morning to discuss the negotiations at their weekly caucus meeting, while Senate Democrats were expected to continue privately meeting throughout the day on the climate and tax provisions. While there is no real deadline for securing an agreement, there is a growing sense of urgency to get it done. The president is leaving Washington Thursday for Europe, where a global climate summit is set to begin on October 31st, and Democrats are racing to win a deal before then so the president can tout America’s commitment to the issue on the world stage. Outstanding disagreements between liberals and moderates over a Medicare expansion, paid family leave benefits and climate initiatives have all prolonged the debate and threatened to alienate one faction or another, jeopardizing President Biden’s top domestic priority. While leadership is pushing for a deal this week, some lawmakers said it will likely take a week to iron out those differences. The emerging compromise could spend around $1.75 trillion over 10 years, though leading Democrats were trying to nudge Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia closer to $2 trillion. Mr. Manchin and other moderates have resisted significant pieces of the plan, including environmental provisions, health care expansions and tax increases designed to pay for the spending. Mr. Manchin, in particular, has balked at multiple climate provisions, in part as a defense of his coal-rich state. He has effectively jettisoned a proposed $150 billion program that would replace coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind and solar power, and is now pushing to remove or modify a provision that would impose a fee on emissions of methane, which are commonly produced in coal mining. He is also facing pressure from his colleagues over his resistance to two key expansions of health care benefits and a new paid leave program. He has so far opposed a push, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, (I-Vermont) who is chairman of the Budget Committee, to expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing benefits, citing the program’s financial instability. As this plays out, the Senate Finance Committee is readying the details of a billionaires’ tax, an entirely new approach to taxing wealth, and other tax provisions that will help pay for the bill without increasing the corporate or individual tax rates. If enacted, the tax would almost certainly face a legal challenge, given the clear incentive for a taxpayer to spend millions in legal fees to save billions on taxes. Taxing capital gains that haven’t been realized yet falls outside the income taxes allowed by the 16th Amendment that don’t have to be apportioned based on state population. Under current law, individuals pay capital-gains taxes only when the gain is realized, typically when they sell an asset, such as a stock, closely held business or painting. The proposal would apply to fewer than 1,000 Americans worth more than $1 billion or with incomes above $100 million for three consecutive years.
For today, the Senate is expected to consider the nominations of: Jia M. Cobb to be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, Karen McGlashan Williams to be United States District Judge for the District of New Jersey and Patricia Tolliver Giles to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. Later today, the Senate is also expected to take up the nominations of Michael S. Nachmanoff to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia and Sarala Vidya Nagala to be United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut.
The House will take up H.R. 2119 – Family Violence Prevention and Services Improvement Act of 2021.
