The Sentinel-Record

EXPLAINER: What’s behind all the drama in Congress?

- MARY CLARE JALONICK AND BRIAN SLODYSKO

WASHINGTON — The drama and deadlines driving action on Capitol Hill right now can be disorienti­ng. Democrats are trying to pass more than $4 trillion in infrastruc­ture and social programs at the center of President Joe Biden’s agenda — and at the same time avert a government shutdown and prevent a federal default that could send financial markets crashing.

“The next few days will be a time of intensity,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues over the weekend. That might be an understate­ment.

Adding to the challenges for Democrats are their thin advantages in both chambers, the end of the fiscal year and intraparty disagreeme­nts over the size and scope of Biden’s signature social spending and climate legislatio­n. Republican leaders have encouraged their members to reject almost all of it, leaving Democrats to go it alone.

Biden has been meeting with fellow Democrats as they navigate the political obstacle course.

“We’ve got three things to do: the debt ceiling, the continuing resolution and the two pieces of legislatio­n,” Biden said Monday. “If we do that, the country’s going to be in great shape.”

A guide to understand­ing it all:

Government funding

Averting a government shutdown at midnight on Sept. 30 — the end of the fiscal year — has become an anxiety-inducing ritual in Washington. This year is no different.

The House last week passed a measue to keep the government open and suspend the debt limit by a party-line vote of 220-211. The Senate was to hold a procedural vote on that bill Monday evening, but Republican­s were expected to block it after Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said his members wouldn’t help raise the debt limit.

One possible path to avoiding a shutdown: Democrats could separate government funding from the debt limit. McConnell says Republican­s would support that.

The stopgap spending legislatio­n includes bipartisan priorities, including $28.6 billion in disaster relief for Hurricane Ida and other extreme weather events and $6.3 billion to support Afghanista­n evacuees after the end of the 20-year war.

Debt limit

Congress has a bit longer to resolve the debt limit issue, as the U.S. is not at risk of defaulting on its accumulate­d debt load of roughly $28 trillion for a few weeks. But it is unclear, for now, how Democrats will get around Republican opposition.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debts in the modern era, and historical­ly both parties have voted to raise the limit. Democrats joined the then-Republican Senate majority in doing so several times during Donald Trump’s presidency, including a suspension of the debt limit that expired in August.

But now that Democrats have unified control of Washington, McConnell has ruled out returning the favor.

McConnell has blamed the proposed $3.5 trillion tax and spending bill and other Democratic priorities for the need to increase the debt limit. But that formula has it backward. Raising the debt limit is needed to make good on past — not future — spending decisions, including the Republican­s’ $1.5 trillion, deficit-financed tax overhaul that Trump signed into law in 2017 and additional trillions in coronaviru­s relief that passed with GOP support.

The legislatio­n passed so far by the House would cover borrowing authority through the end of 2022.

$1 trillion bipartisan infrastruc­ture bill

Democrats and Republican­s in the Senate joined together in a rare bipartisan moment over the summer to pass the public works measure. It has been bottled up in the House ever since, on hold while the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressiv­e wings have sparred over the details of the much larger separate package, which would spend $3.5 trillion over a decade.

House progressiv­es say they won’t vote for the infrastruc­ture bill unless there is agreement on the larger bill. With no deal in hand, Pelosi pushed a vote on the infrastruc­ture bill to Thursday to buy time for negotiatio­ns.

Despite the 19 Senate Republican­s who voted for the $1 trillion measure — and the money it would bring to their districts — House Republican leaders are encouragin­g their members to oppose it. That’s because Democrats are linking it to the larger legislatio­n with social and environmen­tal priorities.

The infrastruc­ture measure would authorize nearly $550 billion in new spending over five years for public works in all corners of the country.

$3.5 Trillion in social and environmen­tal programs

Democrats are trying to pass the separate $3.5 trillion measure on their own by using an elaborate process called budget reconcilia­tion. Using it allows the bill to bypass an otherwise certain GOP filibuster. But Democrats can’t move forward until they agree among themselves on what the legislatio­n should contain.

The bill as drafted includes an assortment of longtime Democratic priorities, including an expansion of existing health, education and child care programs for Americans young and old. Republican­s are lockstep opposed to the plan, which would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate, from 21% to 26.5% on businesses earning more than $5 million a year, and by raising the top rate on individual­s from 37% to 39.6% for those earning more than $400,000 a year, or $450,000 for couples.

 ?? The Associated Press ?? ■ The Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol is seen as a consequent­ial week begins for President Joe Biden’s agenda and Democratic leaders in Congress who are trying to advance his $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” package and pass legislatio­n to avoid a federal shutdown in Washington on Monday,
The Associated Press ■ The Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol is seen as a consequent­ial week begins for President Joe Biden’s agenda and Democratic leaders in Congress who are trying to advance his $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” package and pass legislatio­n to avoid a federal shutdown in Washington on Monday,

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