华盛顿——民主党人如火如荼。众议院按照党派路线投票，使该国首都成为第51个州，两小时后，参议院以压倒性多数批准了两党立法，以解决针对亚裔美国人的暴力问题。
周四的两场胜利让民主党人在乔·拜登总统向国会发表首次讲话的六天前展示了势头。然而，他们也突显了他的政党在实施他的议程方面的局限性。
尽管获得了微弱的多数，但众议院民主党人克服了共和党的反对，并于今年通过了立法，修改了投票法，加强了枪支背景调查，并实现了其他政党的目标。然而，在民主党人因副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯的突破性投票而控制的50比50的参议院中，两党合作将是许多法案获得通过的唯一途径。
参议院共和党的超级大国:阻挠议事、扼杀法案的拖延，这将迫使众议院的50名民主党人赢得至少10名共和党人的投票。这赋予了共和党对拜登和民主党大部分议程的巨大权力，也加剧了希望参议员废除阻挠议事规则的进步人士的沮丧。
“我们热爱的一切都岌岌可危，”第一任期众议员柯里·布什说。”周四，他在参议院堆积灰尘的众议院通过的法案清单上做了记号。“不仅仅是我们热爱的一切，还有我们需要的一切。”
由于众议院50名共和党人的明确反对，需要所有50名民主党参议员——加上哈里斯——来废除或限制阻挠议事。
但是温和派参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin，D-W.Va)和基尔斯顿·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema，D-Ariz)反对取消这一举措，民主党人表示，党内其他人也悄悄地反对这一举措。阻挠议事的捍卫者说，这种策略的威胁鼓励两党合作。
“是时候结束这些政治游戏，开创两党合作的新时代了，”曼钦本月在《华盛顿邮报》的一篇观点文章中写道，许多民主党人认为这种观点很幼稚。
阻挠议事的支持者还表示，一旦共和党不可避免地在某个时候恢复多数党控制，民主党人将后悔取消这项规定。民主党在过去由共和党管理的参议院中曾用它来阻止共和党人削减堕胎权和其他斗争。
值得注意的是，拜登已经赢得了他头几个月议程的顶点——3月份签署成为法律的1.9万亿美元的新冠肺炎救助计划。在未来几个月，他很有可能在他提出的2.3万亿美元基础设施计划上取得第二次重大胜利，白宫表示，该计划将创造数百万个就业机会。
中间派民主党团体第三条道路的高级官员马特·本内特说，“拜登议程中最大的部分，即他投入最多政治资本的部分，已经成为法律”，或者极有可能成为法律。
民主党在共和党一致反对的情况下通过了病毒缓解法案，因为他们使用了特殊的预算规则来防止共和党的阻挠。如果他们不能与共和党人达成妥协，他们可能会诉诸同样的程序来使基础设施法案获胜，这似乎是非常可能的。
但规避阻挠议事程序的使用受到参议院规则的严格限制。仅从1月份开始，这就阻碍了该党核心自由派选民喜爱的民主党倡议，包括放松投票限制、振兴《选举权法案》部分地区、收紧枪支限制以及帮助女性赢得与男性同等薪酬的法案。给予哥伦比亚特区州地位的法案在参议院也没有机会。
在本周一名前明尼阿波利斯警官因谋杀黑人乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)而被定罪后，参议员们在压力下试图就改革警察程序达成妥协。众议院通过的一项法案将禁止扣押，改善警察培训，并结束许多警察免于诉讼的豁免权。
这些路障促使像布什这样的进步人士继续向民主党参议员施压，要求他们取消阻挠议事。一些民主党高层一再威胁要这么做。自由派希望随着众议院通过的法案在众议院堆积，参议院民主党人结束这一规则的压力将会增加。
纽约参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)周四在通过采取温和措施缓解针对亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民的暴力的法案后表示:“这个议院可以以两党合作的方式完成工作。”“这并不意味着我们放弃我们的原则。这并不意味着我们减少了必要的大胆。但这意味着我们会尽可能地与共和党同事合作。”
在上个月的新闻发布会上，拜登主张回到早期的阻挠议事版本，迫使反对的参议员在参议院发言，直到一方或另一方投降。他补充说，如果发生“完全封锁”，我们将不得不超越我所说的范围
众议院议长南希·佩洛西星期四对记者说，“米奇·麦康奈尔仍然是个问题。”她指的是民主党的克星，肯塔基州的参议院少数党领袖，整整两年前，他愉快地将自己描述为“死神”，在自己的房间里扼杀进步法案。
然而，麦康奈尔不应为他们在参议院的所有困境负责。民主党目前在扩大枪支背景调查、提高最低工资和其他一些优先事项上缺乏50张参议院选票，因此消除阻挠议案是不够的。
共和党人已经在阻挠议事的斗争中发起进攻了。麦康奈尔周四在参议院警告说，民主党人希望取消推进立法的程序，这些立法强制实施新的联邦投票规则，增加更多的最高法院法官，并创建一个新的民主党控制的州。
麦康奈尔说:“改写美国政治规则，只让一方受益。”。
展望2022年共和党希望赢得国会控制权的选举，共和党众议院和参议院竞选委员会正在品味利用这个问题。
“这将成为民主党人的一个标准问题，”全国共和党参议院委员会发言人克里斯·哈特林说。“他们必须说，他们支持取消阻挠议事，否则他们将面临自由派的愤怒”，如果他们不这样做的话。
Democrats move 2 bills showing strength and limits of power
WASHINGTON -- Democrats were on a roll. The House voted along party lines to make the nation’s capital the 51st state and two hours later, the Senate overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation to address violence against Asian Americans.
Thursday’s twin victories let Democrats display momentum just six days before President Joe Biden's maiden speech to Congress. Yet they also shined a spotlight on his party's limitations in enacting his agenda.
Despite a minuscule majority, House Democrats have overcome Republican opposition and passed legislation this year reworking voting laws, toughening gun background checks and fulfilling other party goals. Yet in the 50-50 Senate, which Democrats control because of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote, bipartisan cooperation will be the only pathway to passage for many bills.
The Senate GOP's superpower: filibusters, bill-killing delays that would force the chamber's 50 Democrats to win votes from at least 10 Republicans to prevail. That gives Republicans tremendous power over much of Biden's and Democrats' agenda, and it's fueling frustration among progressives who want senators to abolish the filibuster rule.
“Everything we love is at stake," first-term Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said Thursday, ticking off a list of House-passed bills gathering dust in the Senate. “Not just everything we love, but everything we need."
It would take all 50 Democratic senators — plus Harris — to abolish or curtail the filibuster, over the certain objection of the chamber's 50 Republicans.
But moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have opposed eliminating it, and Democrats say others in the party quietly oppose the move as well. Filibuster defenders say the threat of the tactic encourages the two parties to work together.
“The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship," Manchin wrote in a Washington Post opinion essay this month, a sentiment many Democrats consider naive.
Filibuster supporters also say Democrats would regret eliminating the rule once the GOP, inevitably at some point, returns to majority control. Democrats in past GOP-run Senates have used it to prevent Republicans from curtailing abortion rights and in other fights.
Significantly, Biden has already won the capstone of his first months' agenda — the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, signed into law in March. In coming months, he stands a strong chance of achieving a second major triumph on his proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, which the White House says would create millions of jobs.
“The biggest pieces of Biden's agenda, that he's put the most political capital behind, already became law” or have a strong chance of that, said Matt Bennett, a top official with Third Way, a centrist Democratic group.
Democrats passed the virus relief bill over unanimous Republican opposition because they used special budget rules preventing GOP filibusters. They might resort to the same procedure for the infrastructure bill to prevail if, as seems strongly possible, they can't reach compromise with Republicans.
But use of the procedure circumventing filibusters is strictly limited by Senate rules. Since January alone, that's stymied Democratic initiatives beloved by the party's core liberal voters, including bills easing voting restrictions, reviving portions of the Voting Rights Act, tightening gun restrictions and helping women win salaries equal to men's pay. The bill granting statehood to the District of Columbia also faces no chance in the Senate.
Under pressure after this week's conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer in the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, senators are trying to negotiate a compromise for overhauling police procedures. A House-passed bill would ban chokeholds, improve police training and end immunity of many police officers from lawsuits.
The roadblocks have prompted progressives like Bush to continue pressing Democratic senators to eliminate the filibuster. Some top Democrats have repeatedly dangled the threat of doing just that. Liberals hope pressure on Senate Democrats to end the rule will build as House-passed bills stack up in the chamber.
“This chamber can work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday after it passed the bill taking modest steps to ease violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “That doesn't mean we forgo our principles. That doesn't mean we cut back on the boldness that is needed. But it means we try to work with our Republican colleagues whenever we can."
At a news conference last month, Biden advocated a return to an earlier filibuster version that forced objecting senators to speak on the Senate floor until one side or the other surrendered. He added that if a “complete lockdown” occurred, “we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday that “Mitch McConnell is still the problem." She was referring to Democrats' nemesis, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky, who exactly two years ago happily described himself as the "Grim Reaper” killing progressive bills in his chamber.
McConnell, however, isn't to blame for all their Senate woes. Democrats currently lack 50 Senate votes for expanded gun background checks, raising the minimum wage and some other priorities, so eliminating the filibuster wouldn't be enough.
Republicans are already playing offense on the filibuster fight. McConnell warned on the Senate floor Thursday that Democrats want to eliminate the procedure to push though legislation imposing new federal voting rules, adding more Supreme Court justices and creating a new Democratic-controlled state.
“Rewriting the rules of American politics to exclusively benefit one side,” McConnell said.
Looking ahead to 2022 elections when Republicans hope to win congressional control, the GOP House and Senate campaign committees are savoring using the issue.
“It's going to become a standard question” for Democrats, said Chris Hartline, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “They'll have to say that they support getting rid of the filibuster, or they will face the ire of their liberal base" if they don't.
