After impeachment unity, Democratic tug-of-war resumes
Caucus differences break out over a messaging bill on tax deductions.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. | Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
By SARAH FERRIS
House Democrats' impeachment detente is over.
Less than 24 hours after the caucus took a momentous — and unifying — vote to impeach President Donald Trump, House Democrats were stumbling in their attempt to pass a messaging bill that stood no chance of becoming law.
The bill, which repeals a tax hike from the Republican tax law that burned blue states, ultimately passed overwhelmingly with support from both parties.
But hours before the vote, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was forced to halt floor debate as he wrangled with last-minute complaints from moderates, several of whom had demanded the legislation in the first place.
Democratic leaders finally decided to give the centrists what they wanted, allowing dozens of their members to back a GOP amendment that they knew Republicans would seize on.
"In the spirit of Christmas, we just decided to let this go," said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), one of the chief authors of the bill bringing back the deduction for state and local taxes. "What's important for people to be thinking about right now is that we passed a bill to restore the SALT deduction."
It was almost the exact political tug-of-war that Democratic leaders have faced all year with their sprawling caucus, with the most heated clashes often centering on whether to launch impeachment proceedings.
But after the Ukraine scandal broke open in September, nearly the entire Democratic Caucus rallied behind the idea of launching an impeachment inquiry, sidelining many of the ideological arguments that can sometimes consume the caucus.
Post-impeachment, Democrats are, in some ways, back to where they started. Lawmakers are navigating complicated politics within their caucus as they muscle through an ambitious policy agenda that will please outspoken progressives without alienating the centrist members who secured the House majority.
And they're hoping that the minor procedural squabbles don't drown out their biggest wins — like how the dust-up on the SALT bill came just before a decisive victory on a massive trade deal between Democrats and the White House.
"It's all gonna work out," Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, said after Democrats had worked out the dispute on the tax bill. "This is the way things work around here. I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just another normal day here."
House Democrats are heading into the Christmas recess after their most productive legislative stretch all year — a drug pricing package, a trade deal, government funding and a Pentagon policy bill.
And each passed with minimal intracaucus feuding, save for some last-minute squabbling over the precise details of the prescription drug pricing legislation and a Department of Homeland Security funding bill.
"We're in a different place than we were when the year started," Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said.
"The ability to move forward in a dignified fashion on impeachment, and then, especially for a lot of the newer members, to be able to get to a place where we are likely going to have a very big vote on a trade deal, is a very big deal," Kildee said.
But post-impeachment, the peace might not last.
House Democrats' two most powerful factions — progressives and swing district centrists — are eyeing lengthy legislative wish lists for 2020 that could once again risk upending caucus unity as they head toward the next election.
Both sides have secured big wins in recent weeks. Moderates, for example, are ecstatic about the trade deal, while progressives are touting key tweaks they made to the prescription drug bill. But each side wants still more.
Dozens of progressives, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, are fuming over the DHS funding bill that they say failed to rein in Trump's hardline immigration tactics.
"We essentially have to be stronger, use our numbers," Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said about the border policies that were ultimately approved in the funding bill over the objections of almost the entire Hispanic Caucus.
Gallego said he and some of his colleagues have begun discussing a "nuclear option" — voting down Democratic procedural votes to flex their muscles, particularly when it comes to spending bills.
"I think we're going to have to start thinking up strategies to basically hold our ground," Gallego said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), perhaps the caucus' most outspoken liberal firebrand, also suggested that progressives needed to "flex their muscles" after their top policy priorities were initially snubbed in the drug pricing bill.
IMPEACHMENT TODAY
The Senate voted today to acquit Trump on charges that he abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political opponents, and then stonewalled Congress' investigation of the matter.
Who supports Trump's conviction in the Senate?
Questions about impeachment? Ask our reporters.
Sen. Mitt Romney said he will vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial, becoming the only Republican to break with the president and his party.
Sen. Doug Jones, who faces a tough reelection race in Alabama, will vote to convict Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Sen. Susan Collins will vote to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Read all impeachment coverage »
Immigration — an issue that has divided the Democratic caucus over and over this year — threatens once again to become the caucus' toughest debate next year.
Some of those concerns, like DHS funding and border detention facilities, are perennial issues in the appropriations cycle.
But Congress might also be forced to deal with immigration policy next spring because of a long-awaited Supreme Court ruling on the Obama-era law on so-called Dreamers — with 700,000 people at risk of losing their legal status.
The threats against Dreamers have spurred talk within both progressive and moderate circles of taking on comprehensive immigration reform — though it's almost certain to be a nonstarter in a presidential year.
This week, a meeting between battleground freshmen and senior leaders went "off the rails" as several freshmen argued that Democrats needed to push more forcefully for border security, according to multiple people in the room.
Several swing district Democrats are also talking about drafting their own immigration proposal that would attempt to strike a deal with Republicans on issues beyond humanitarian aid, like farmworkers.
"To me, there is no contradiction between saying that we need strong border security and we need to live up to our values with humanitarian values," said Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a centrist who traveled to the border this summer. "I think some people think it's either/or, and it's not. That's not true."
"As a CIA officer, as someone who's husband is in the military for 30 years," Slotkin said, "we always maintain strong security for the country while living up to our humanitarian values."
Heather Caygle and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.
Steny Hoyer,
Impeachment,
Dan Kildee,
Ruben Gallego,
Tom Malinowski,
News on Trump Impeachment