Senate GOP abandons anti-Biden strategy after unexpected backfire
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Senate Republicans have quietly reversed course on trying to rebuke or embarrass the Biden White House, concerned it could help Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stay in power.
Why it matters: House and Senate GOP leaders had been pitting Democrats against Biden with Congressional Review Act votes, which allows Congress to overturn federal government rules and regulations.
- Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told Axios they were "not actually getting anything done" with the votes, but it created a situation in which Democrats "can send a message that they're pretending to back home."
- "These are awfully hard votes to explain" to voters, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told Axios last year after votes on ESG investing, crime, COVID-19 and clean-water regulations.
But more recently that approach has backfired, giving endangered Senate Democrats an opportunity to vote against Biden.
- CRA votes can give the White House a black eye. But they also gave vulnerable Democrats a chance to signal to voters they aren't just a rubber stamp for Biden.
Driving the news: Lankford told Axios that one of his CRA resolutions — on White House policy on nursing homes — hasn't gotten a vote because, in part, it is an easy way for vulnerable Democrats to distance themselves from Biden.
- A senior Senate GOP aide acknowledged that a part of the shift was to stop giving vulnerable Democrats free votes to signal more moderate or right-leaning stances.
- Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), two of Schumer's most vulnerable members, have used such votes to keep Biden at arms' length on energy and the environment.
What we're hearing: After a busy CRA schedule in 2023, a CRA vote hasn't been held in the Senate since May.
- As a substantive matter, the votes allow Congress to overturn federal rules promulgated by departments and agencies.
- As a political exercise, Republicans have used them as a way to rebuke the Biden administration from what they call "woke" policies.
- It takes 30 senators to sign on to a petition to force a floor vote on a CRA.
The big picture: Fending off certain Biden administration policies has been a core feature of Tester's and Brown's high-stakes campaigns.
- Tester got a major victory in March when the Senate voted to overturn a rule from the Department of Agriculture that would end a ban on beef imports from Paraguay.
- Tester and Brown both voted for a CRA that would overturn a Biden administration rule on measuring and setting greenhouse gas emission standards.
- Schumer needs Tester and Brown to win in red states in November if he wants to be Senate majority leader in 2025.
