Democratic displeasure after President Joe Biden said he would not stop lawmakers from overturning a bill to change Washington, D.C.’s criminal sentencing laws indicates potential pitfalls on the horizon as Congress eyes high-stakes battles over the debt ceiling.
Keeping lawmakers on the same page could prove essential to hammering out a deal. During Biden’s first year in office, frayed tensions between the White House and some Democrats led to obstacles as the president sought to advance legislation.
Biden has repeatedly hailed his ability to strike deals and long Washington experience, including 36 years in the Senate. But his record was mixed even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before the midterm elections.
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Biden's surprise announcement rocked congressional Democrats as lawmakers gathered at their annual retreat in Baltimore, raising questions about the White House’s legislative strategy ahead of bruising negotiations with Republicans over the debt limit and government spending.
On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) said he would vote “with the president” to overturn the Washington crime bill, according to NBC News. “They have asked us to literally return the bill,” said Carper, the lead sponsor of Washington statehood legislation.
The vote comes as congressional Democrats accused the White House of failing to brief lawmakers on Biden’s position adequately.
“If he was going to do it, I wish he would’ve told us first because this was a hard vote for the House members,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said during a University of Chicago event. “I understand why some people voted against. But if the president’s going to do it, hey, could you give us a heads up too in the House?”
Biden announced his plan not to veto the resolution during a closed-door lunch with Senate Democrats last week after 173 House Democrats had voted against it. The comments sparked an outcry.
The White House this week declined to explain the policy process around Biden’s decision or whether Biden had spoken with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser before his comments.
“The president knew he had to make a decision, he had conversations with his team, and he made that decision,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre said when the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy ahead of the House’s early February vote, it did not say whether Biden intended to block the resolution, just that he “opposed” it. Still, the statement laid out the president’s opposition, language that led Democrats to believe he would veto the measure.
Biden has long backed “home rule” for the district, though Congress’s bill would override the D.C. Council’s law.
Asked about the confusion over Biden’s stance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to criticize the president.
In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend, Jeffries said he had not yet discussed Biden’s position with the White House.
“Let’s take it one step at a time,” Jeffries said. “We have to see what happens in the United States Senate next week. Depending on what the Senate does, the president will have to respond one way or the other. I haven’t had an opportunity to talk to the White House yet about the president’s views, so I’m not going to characterize his position one way or the other until we’ve had a chance to talk about that issue.”
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A White House aide reached out to Jeffries as Biden announced his support for the resolution to Senate Democrats last week after party officials had whipped the vote to ensure the number would not be enough to override a presidential veto, according to Punchbowl News.
The measure cannot be filibustered and only needs a majority vote to pass the Senate.