Centrist senators’ clout on the rise in divided chamber
Bipartisan support needed for key bills
At a time when angry tweets, bitter debates and dueling protests dominate the news, the most powerful people in the Senate may end up being the ones who know how to get along.
With Republicans holding a narrow 52-48 majority in the chamber, it will take bipartisan compromise to pass a new health care bill, lower taxes for middle-class families and create jobs. Most major bills need a supermajority of 60 votes to pass.
The senators who hold the key to consensus are a group of about a dozen or so pragmatic, independent-minded lawmakers from both parties who already are quietly working together in private offices and committee rooms to nudge the Senate beyond ideological battles to get things done.
“In a closely divided chamber, just three or four members can exercise disproportionate influence,” said Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. “They may not be what you would traditionally call moderate, but they’re practical-minded senators who are willing to compromise, at least on certain issues. Serious legislators will look to them for help.”
One of the biggest tests of the centrists’ increased clout could come as the Republican majority in Congress tries to keep its promise to voters to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
GOP leaders who had predicted they could jam through a bill in just a few months are starting to realize that coming up with a new health care plan is not as easy as it seemed, and that they need help from Senate Democrats to do it, Pitney said.
“At some point down the road, we’re going to need 60 votes to solve our health care problem, and most other major issues that affect people’s lives in a big way,” said Sen. Bob Corker, RTenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the pragmatists Pitney was describing.
The crucial role that independent-minded senators will play has been underscored in recent days by efforts to both court and target them.
On Thursday, President Trump invited a group of senators to lunch at the White House. They included Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana and Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
Topics included confirming Trump’s nominees, tackling immigration reform, expanding Internet access to rural areas and reducing opioid abuse.
“It wasn’t all ‘let’s get together and hold hands and agree on everything,’ ” Capito said. “The main emphasis was how do we find common ground.”