In a 50-50 Senate, Kamala Harris can sign off on $2,000 stimulus checks and more
Kamala Harris suddenly has been handed all kinds of power to get people $2,000 stimulus checks, provide money to fight climate change and win confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees.
Because Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Ralph Warnock and Jon Ossoff won Tuesday, the Senate will have 50 members who caucus with Democrats and 50 Republicans. That means once she’s sworn in as vice president January 20, Harris also becomes Senate president.
That means she breaks 50-50 ties.
“Winning the two seats in Georgia is a big deal for the Democrats because of the VP’s power to break tie votes,” said Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential expert and professor of law emeritus at Saint Louis University School of Law.
As vice president under President Barack Obama, Biden never had to break a tie. But Vice President Al Gore broke ties that were consequential: In 1993 on President Bill Clinton’s economic relief package and in 1999 on a gun control initiative. Many of Vice President Mike Pence’s tiebreakers have involved President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Harris has been a U.S. senator from California since 2017, and sought the presidency herself in 2019. Now she finds herself in a position that will mean voting to transform Biden’s campaign promises into national policy.
“When VP Harris exercises her constitutional power to break Senate ties she’ll be acting to help the Biden administration achieve its objectives, not really as an independent agent,” Goldstein said.
She will nevertheless be in the spotlight as the most visible difference-maker in the often bitterly divided U.S. Senate.
Biden has promised an ambitious effort to quickly get people more economic help.
Campaigning in Georgia Monday, he promised that if Congress was controlled by Democrats “$2,000 checks will go out the door.”
Congress last month approved stimulus payments of $600 per qualifying adult and $500 per dependent child. Most Democrats and Trump wanted the higher amount but were stymied by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Harris has gone much further. In May, she was a lead sponsor of a plan to provide up to $2,000 per month. Her plan would have allowed married couples filing jointly to get $4,000 a month, plus $2,000 per child for up to three children. It would have begun to phase out for people with incomes of more than $100,000.
Congress passed legislation to provide a one-time $1,200 per qualifying adult payment, but Harris said it was “clear that wasn’t nearly enough to meet the needs of this historic crisis.”
Biden has also been sympathetic to more help for financially ailing state and local governments. Republicans blocked a big aid package throughout 2020.
While it usually takes 60 votes to limit debate in the Senate, there’s an important exception that should help the Biden agenda and hand Harris more clout.
It’s called “reconciliation.” If bill-writers follow the process’ rules, they can pass massive changes in certain tax and spending items with 51 votes.
The process has to involve only changes in numbers, and cannot alter policy itself. Three such uses of the plan are allowed each year, one for taxes, one for budget and one for debt.
That means Biden could try to win approval of funding for his climate change efforts or his bid to reform health care – but he’d have to do it carefully so it could not be challenged.
“If Democrats can hold a consensus, they can use reconciliation and do a lot,” said William Hoagland, senior vice president at Washington’s Bipartisan Policy Center and veteran Senate staffer, told The Sacramento Bee.
Reconciliation is how Republicans were able to muscle through a massive tax cut in 2017, when no Democrat would support the plan. And Obama used the process to win approval of part of his health care plan.
Having a 51st vote is also likely to help Biden win confirmation of Cabinet appointments and judges.
Myesha Braden, director for Special Justice Initiatives at the Alliance for Justice, has noted that he’s likely to name judges ”reflecting the demographic diversity of the nation and the experiential diversity of the legal profession.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
.jpg)