Senate Republicans are rushing to beat Friday’s deadline to pass a roughly $9 billion rescission bill. Democrats may not be able to do much about it.
When the Senate started its vote-a-rama Wednesday afternoon for the rescission bill, staff were internally referring to the vote series by a different name: a mini-rama.
One of the greatest hopes for Democrats looking to run out the clock on the rescission legislation, which must be passed by both chambers and signed into law before midnight on Friday, was a prolonged vote-a-rama. If Democrats could force votes on hundreds of amendments, they could potentially slow down the bill enough that the package’s 45-day deadline would expire.
But rather than hundreds, or even thousands, of amendments, Democrats were only able to put forth about a dozen.
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There are only so many amendments Democrats could offer that would meet the parliamentarian’s standard for being germane. (There is no 60-vote point of order for non-germane amendments like with reconciliation, so the question was entirely up to the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.)
Given the relative size of the rescission package — the entire bill is less than 1,000 words (977 to be exact) — there are only so many amendments Democrats could offer that would pass muster with the parliamentarian, a Senate aide told NOTUS.
“We’re doing everything we can do within the rules of the Senate,” Sen. Peter Welch told NOTUS on Wednesday.
His message to voters watching the rescission debate play out was also less than optimistic about Democrats actually being able to kill the bill.
“What we can’t tell them is we can win,” Welch said. “We have 47 and they have 53 votes.”
The Democratic options to grind this down and push the bill past the deadline are slim, given the majority’s tools to ultimately call the question following some reasonable amendment consideration, a senior Democratic aide said.
The reality is Republicans may be far enough along in the process that Democrats can’t halt the bill. If Democrats could have delayed initial floor action with some sort of filibuster, like a marathon speech from Sen. Cory Booker or another Democrat, the timeline might be more in question. But getting the bill to the vote-a-rama stage by Wednesday leaves Democrats with few options, unlike previous instances when Democrats have been successful in slowing the schedule like during the massive budget reconciliation bill process.
As the senior Democratic aide put it, there are not enough tools to delay the passage of the rescission package past the Friday deadline if Republicans have the votes.
“For someone to say, ‘Why aren’t you fighting?’ strikes me as counterfactual and counterintuitive,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NOTUS.
When the Senate passes the rescission package, it will go to the House, where Republican leadership is facing its own drama with hard-liners over a combined rule vote — which would advance legislation for a final vote before Friday’s deadline — that includes the rescission package.
In the House, there are a few tactics Democrats can use to slow debate — motions to adjourn, points of order, even long speeches.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries may be the last, best hope for Democrats, depending on when debate actually starts on a Senate-amended rescission bill.
Jeffries has a “magic minute,” which allows him to speak on the floor however long he wants. And during reconciliation, he claimed the record for the longest floor speech.
But holding up debate for hours and hours may be difficult, especially if the House is able to begin debate on the rescission package on Thursday, as expected.
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