Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) launched the kind of attack on the House cromnibus deal that has progressive activists hoping she’ll run for president, and House Democrats seem to be responding — although perhaps not in the numbers needed to block the bill.
“I think it’s going to be a close vote,” Representative Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) tells National Review Online, adding that he opposes the $1.1 trillion spending package because of the Dodd-Frank legislative rider it includes.
“The provision would no longer require that big banks separate trades in financial derivatives from traditional bank accounts, which are backed by the government through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC),” according to the Hill. “The derivatives played a key role in the financial collapse.”
Warren picked a fight with that change on Wednesday. “The House of Representatives is about to show us the worst of government for the rich and powerful,” she said.
House Republican leadership needs at least some Democrats to back the bill because it doesn’t have 218 Republican supporters; rank-and-file conservatives who want to fight President Obama’s amnesty in the lame-duck session are disappointed that the bill includes no language withholding funding for the implementation of the executive orders. So Warren wants Democrats to force Republicans to strip out the language.
Warren had a hard time rallying House Democrats this week, though, when she announced her opposition to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act reauthorization bill because it also included a Dodd-Frank rider. The bill passed 417–7, with the support of every House Democrat.
“Her sway over there so far seems to be pretty limited,” one Senate Republican aide suggested to NRO.
House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer isn’t treating the revolt that way, though. On the House floor, he urged Republicans to strike the the provisions that have put the overall spending package “at risk.”
A House Democratic leadership aide wouldn’t reveal their internal whip count. “There are some provisions that the caucus has concerns with but we’re talking to our Members,” the aide tells NRO.
If the bill does pass out of the House, Warren wouldn’t be able to block the legislation in the Senate on her own.
“The Democratic leadership — of which she is now a member — is heavily invested in this omni,” the Senate aide says. “They want to get it done. Their chairmen helped write it. So, I have a feeling [Senate majority leader Harry Reid] will tamp down his conference.”
If the bill passes Thursday, a cloture vote would be held no later than Saturday, and then the Senate would vote on the bill itself no later than Sunday. The House could buy the Senate the necessary time by passing a continuing resolution of just a few days’ length to avoid a government shutdown.