- Senate Democrats may punt Biden's big spending plan into 2022 and push for voting rights, NBC News reported.
- Sen. Joe Manchin has remaining concerns about the bill's provisions and how much would be paid for.
- Several Democrats told Insider they were so far unaware of any plans to push off the bill.
Senate Democrats' chances to pass President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda by the end of the year appear to be dropping fast. And they could be turning their attention to making a renewed push on voting rights instead.
NBC News reported on Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning on punting the $1.75 trillion social spending and climate package into 2022, and may instead pursue a final push to pass voting rights legislation.
Both Senate leadership and the White House are in a stalemate with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key swing vote needed to pass the bill. Manchin remains skeptical about some provisions of the bill, like an extension of the bulked-up child tax credit. He's also raised repeated concerns about the bill's impact on inflation and ensuring the bill's programs are fully covered by government revenue from taxes.
Delaying the package until 2022 would reflect a remarkable reversal for Senate Democrats, who aimed to approve the spending plan by Christmas. It also amounts to a tacit admission that large parts of the legislation are still far from being settled. Lingering areas of disagreement include a planned expansion of Medicare benefits, tax breaks, and certain climate provisions.
But it may represent a chance for Democrats to score a major legislative victory for Biden and deliver on a key part of his agenda. Many Democrats appeared unaware of the switcheroo from Biden's Build Back Better plan to voting rights.
"I've not been informed of that plan," Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranked Senate Democrat, told reporters.
"You need to talk to the leader about that," Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, one of the Senate Democrats working on voting rights legislation and member of the Budget Committee packaging the spending bill, told Insider when asked to confirm whether leadership was shelving the Build Back Better plan.
Voting rights advocates are expressing increasing alarm over state-level Republicans passing laws that restrict voting opportunities, moving to further politicize election administration, and pursuing partisan reviews of the 2020 election first in Arizona and now Wisconsin.
"There is an urgency, obviously for the Freedom to Vote Act because of what's happening in the states, and I would say, Wisconsin," Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. "So I'm very, very focused on putting a stop to all the intimidation and threats that we're seeing in my state."
But Senate Democrats' window to pass any kind of meaningful voting rights and election reform legislation before the 2022 midterm elections is rapidly closing.
"I have been working on voting rights since May. I wanted it to happen a long time ago, and I want it to happen every day, so we'll get to it as soon as we have something that is firmed up," Kaine said.
All 50 Senate Democrats, including Manchin, support the Freedom to Vote Act, a wide-ranging voting rights and election reform bill, but Senate Republicans filibustered the measure in October. Both Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose entirely scrapping the Senate filibuster or creating a carveout to allow Democrats to pass the bill along party lines.
Kaine is a member of a group of four key moderate Democrats working to come to an agreement on more modest Senate rules changes that Manchin could get behind. The group is exploring ideas like lowering the threshold needed to advance to debate on certain bills and amendments, and requiring senators to physically be on the Senate floor during a filibuster, Politico reported.
"I'm ready to do that, and I hope others are engaged," Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois told Insider about passing voting rights legislation. "I think it's really important that we really pass voter protections, knowing what's happening all across our country with voter suppression efforts everywhere."
Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat, didn't confirm that the Build Back Better bill was being pushed off into 2022 but noted the outstanding procedural kinks that need to be ironed out.
"The Build Back Better budget is being reviewed line-by-line to make sure that the House-passed version meets the very complicated Senate reconciliation rules," she told Insider. "And that process is out of our hands. It's a long bill and it's taking time, and so it is we can't bring it to the floor until that process is done."
However, punting the centerpiece of Biden's domestic agenda does carry consequences. Democrats strived to prevent an abrupt end to monthly child tax credit checks up to $300 per kid next month. Manchin denied reports on Wednesday that he's seeking to cut the program entirely.
"I'm very, very surprised because I thought that there was an agreement on this," Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado told Insider.
He went on: "It seems to me the last thing we should be doing at this moment of rising prices is raising taxes on working people in this country, which is what the effect of ending this policy would be."