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House Democrats face obstacles governing with slim majority

by Emily Brooks, Political Reporter 

 

December 20, 2020 06:30 AM

 

House Democrats’ slim majority made even skinnier by President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to tap three members to join his administration creates challenges for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic caucus.

It means that small factions of the party such as more centrist Democrats or far-left “Squad” members could band together to wield power and stop legislation that they find objectionable. And it creates the environment where Republicans may be able to use procedural tools to their advantage even more.

As a result of the 2020 elections, Republicans netted at least 10 seats. Democrats will have 222 seats, with Republicans at 212. The race to represent New York's 22nd Congressional District, covering a swath of the state's central region, is uncalled.

That majority was already slim, but it is set to shrink further, with three Democrats set to leave Congress for jobs in the Biden administration: Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond will join the White House as a senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge is set to be Biden’s nominee for housing secretary, and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland will be Biden’s nominee for interior secretary.

Though each one of them comes from safe Democratic seats, it could take months until special elections are settled and their replacements have taken office.

Further complicating matters are two seats, in Iowa’s 2nd District and New York’s 22nd District, where the 2020 election was razor-close and the ultimate results, and when they will be known, are up in the air. In the Iowa district, Democrat Rita Hart trailed Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks by just six votes in state-certified results out of more than 394,000 cast. Hart has said she plans to contest the election in the House. In the New York district, which is undergoing state judicial review, former Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney leads Democratic incumbent Rep. Anthony Brindisi by a dozen votes out of hundreds of thousands cast.

In any case, after Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20 and the three administration members-in-waiting resign from their House seats, the Democrats’ majority could be as high as eight members or slim as six members for the critical first period of Biden’s administration.

California Rep. Ted Lieu downplayed the challenge created by the tight split. “Different Members of Congress are leaving at different times. Rep Richmond’s replacement will be in place by March or April. It’s simply a sequencing issue because all of these seats will be filled by Democrats,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

But presidents typically have the most leverage to push their policy agendas through Congress, and the majority leaves little room for defections or error for Democrats when trying to pass legislation, and the situation creates the possibility of giving some factions within the Democratic Party greater power.

The far-left Squad that includes New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib is, according to a fundraising email this week from the leftist Justice Democrats, growing, with Reps.-elect Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York joining Congress in January.

“I do think that it gives us leverage to use that when it’s absolutely necessary,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Dispatch last week.

On the other hand, as Ocasio-Cortez noted to the Dispatch, the environment creates pressure on Democrats to band together in order to keep a functional majority.

More centrist members of the House, though they don’t have a catchy, one-word name, could also flex the same kind of power, preventing the House from passing restrictive policies on key issues like climate.

Republicans, capitalizing on the Democratic factions, could ramp up their use of a procedural tool that they have used over the last two years: the motion to recommit. Technically, the motion provides one last opportunity for the House to debate and amend a bill before a final vote on passage. But recently, Republicans have used the procedure as a backhanded way to kill a piece of legislation, or at least create further division among Democrats by bringing up pain points.

Democrats, though, are working to reform House rules in an effort to take that tool out of the Republicans’ toolbox.

Another option that Republicans could theoretically take advantage of is a quorum call, which would force Democrats to show up in person — a task that, with a slim majority, would take much coordination and a change in scheduling dynamics.

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