The left is channeling its frustration after a setback in their push for a $15 hourly wage.
Progressives are willing to accept defeat on the minimum wage for now and vote for President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package. But they’re channeling their energy into a renewed push to kill the filibuster. One day after the Senate parliamentarian effectively forced a $15 minimum wage hike out of Democrats‘ coronavirus relief package, leading liberal activists are racing to turn their bitter setback into opportunity. The need to sacrifice a key Biden priority in order to ensure the Covid aid bill can pass the Senate with a simple majority has handed progressive lawmakers and their allied groups a new talking point in their long-running quest to eliminate the legislative filibuster. “We promised a $15 minimum wage,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “So if that $15 minimum wage isn’t in this package, we are going to have to figure out a way to get it through. And if that means reforming the filibuster, then we should reform the filibuster.” Democrats pushed hard to raise the minimum wage as part of the pandemic relief measure, which the Senate can pass with just 51 votes thanks to the protections of the arcane budget reconciliation process. But now that the chamber’s parliamentarian has ruled out adding the wage hike to the coronavirus bill, progressives see nuking the filibuster outright as their best — and perhaps only — chance of getting to $15 an hour. Very few Senate Democrats believe that the left’s demands to toss the chamber’s 60-vote threshold will have any effect on the dynamic in their 50-member caucus, where there’s currently not enough support for eliminating the filibuster. Still, pressure from progressives on and off the Hill — who turned the filibuster into a wedge issue during the Democratic presidential primary — is rapidly intensifying in only the second month of Biden’s tenure. With Democrats preparing to take up other high-priority legislation, including a landmark voting rights bill and police reform, liberals‘ clamor to end the filibuster is bound to cause new political headaches for party leaders. Thursday night’s setback on the minimum wage is the first of many potential stressors to come as Democrats rethink the future of the legislative filibuster. Few of the party’s major policy priorities stand a real chance of passing the Senate without eliminating the tool that requires a 60-vote margin of approval for most measures. „It’s going to take a few more issues that get momentarily frustrated for it to fully come to a head but we’re getting closer by the day,“ said Brian Fallon, executive director of the liberal group Demand Justice.
