In divided US Home, prime Democrat Hakeem Jeffries goals to maintain some grip on energy

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrat Hakeem Jeffries may very well be poised to wield extra energy than a minority chief sometimes enjoys within the U.S. Home of Representatives, with President-elect Donald Trump’s fractious Republicans holding a skinny majority.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson turned to him greater than a dozen occasions in the course of the 2023-2024 session to supply Democratic votes to move essential laws, together with in Might when Jeffries helped Johnson maintain off an effort by hardline Republicans to finish his speakership.

Throughout Friday’s vote to re-elect Johnson, all 215 Democrats voted for his or her 54-year-old chief from New York — as they’ve executed repeatedly via speaker fights over the previous two years. Johnson was re-elected speaker, however solely after the vote needed to be held open for a chronic interval amid makes an attempt by Trump and Johnson to persuade two of the three Republicans who voted towards him to change their positions and propel him to victory.

Republicans will initially maintain a 219-215 majority.

“I feel we have now much more leverage there than we had” in 2017, mentioned Democratic Consultant Don Beyer in an interview final month. That yr marked the beginning of Trump’s first time period in workplace, when his Republicans additionally managed the Home, however by a 40-seat margin.

To make certain, Jeffries’ powers, and people of Democratic Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, can be restricted. Republicans will attempt to move a lot of Trump’s legislative agenda on party-line votes, bypassing Senate guidelines that require 60 of the 100 members to agree on most laws, as Democrats did throughout President Joe Biden’s first two years in workplace.

Within the Home, Jeffries’ powers primarily can be restricted to exploiting divisions amongst Republicans that necessitate Democratic votes to move laws.

It’s a tactic Jeffries deployed greater than a dozen occasions since Republicans took management of the Home in January 2023 on payments starting from authorities funding to an $895 billion invoice authorizing navy applications and emergency support for Ukraine’s warfare effort towards Russia.

The upcoming battle over Trump’s push to resume expiring tax cuts, which have been enacted in 2017 and aimed primarily at firms and the rich, offers Democrats hope that Jeffries can win concessions. These embrace an expanded little one tax credit score for low-income folks and repeal of a cap on deductions for state and native taxes.

Conscious of voters’ backlash towards excessive client costs underneath Biden’s watch, Jeffries used a speech in the course of the first assembly of the newly-elected Home to proclaim: “For a lot too lengthy on this nation the price of dwelling has gone up however the measurement of the center class has come down.” Citing excessive prices of housing, groceries and childcare, Jeffries added, “America is simply too costly.”

Whereas he mentioned Democrats stand able to work in a bipartisan method with Republicans, he warned: “We’ll push again towards far-right extremism every time crucial.” He singled out a have to defend Social Safety retirement and Medicare healthcare advantages from cuts.

He and his lieutenants have sketched out extra areas of potential bipartisan compromise, which embrace defending folks delivered to the US illegally after they have been youngsters from deportation, revamping U.S. asylum legislation and updating the visa system for immigrant farm staff.

‘CAN’T BE STEAMROLLED’

What stays to be seen is whether or not Jeffries will handle to forge a working relationship with Trump. The 2 New York Metropolis natives collaborated throughout Trump’s 2017-2021 time period on legal justice reforms. However since then, Washington partisanship has solely deepened and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, had a contentious relationship with Trump.

Final month, when Trump tried to drive passage of a controversial debt restrict improve as a part of a retooled stopgap funding invoice, Democrats balked and have been joined by about three dozen disgruntled Republicans.

“We confirmed that we will not be steamrolled,” veteran Democratic Consultant Debbie Dingell mentioned.

The chaos raised questions over whether or not Trump had needlessly expended post-election capital earlier than his presidency had even begun and now may need to decrease his sights.

“I do not suppose so. He is nonetheless sturdy. Individuals nonetheless love him again residence. That is all that actually issues,” Republican Consultant Tim Burchett of Tennessee advised reporters.