Biden shifts from Obama when it comes to Senate

President Biden is handling the Senate in a vastly different way than his former boss, President Obama. 

The different tactics were on display Wednesday as Biden took a trip to his old stomping grounds, where he served for more than 30 years as a senator from Delaware and frequently made the trip up Pennsylvania Avenue as vice president to negotiate with lawmakers on key Obama administration priorities.

It was Biden’s first trip to Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch as president, and it came at a momentous point for his administration.

“It was great to be home, great to be back with my colleagues, and I think we’re going to get a lot done,” Biden said after spending roughly an hour meeting with senators.

The president arrived alongside Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who a day earlier announced an initial agreement with Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee on a $3.5 trillion spending package that would fund climate initiatives, health care programs, education and more. The deal was spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Budget panel’s chairman and Biden’s old primary rival.

Biden turned on the charm while at the meeting, praising senators for their work in reaching the budget deal and complimenting individual members on their efforts.

Obama also made regular trips to Capitol Hill, but the style with which both men go about working with lawmakers is markedly different, according to those who have witnessed both men on the Hill.

“Obama did caucus lunches as well, but he viewed engaging the Hill as a necessary chore. Joe Biden views it as the only way to advance his agenda and he genuinely enjoys it,” the former senior aide said. “Obama leveraged his popularity to drive an agenda. Biden is leveraging his role as the modern day ‘Master of the Senate.’”

Another former Obama aide also said the difference is Biden loves glad-handing with senators.

With Obama, the second aide said, “it didn’t come too naturally.”

Obama in his memoir bristled at criticism that he didn’t do enough socializing with lawmakers to move his agenda.

He noted that early in his term he had invited lawmakers to the White House for a Super Bowl party. That did little to dislodge opposition to his agenda.

Biden and Obama also face different situations. Obama enjoyed a large majority in the Senate, and the GOP minority led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) showed little interest in working with him.

Biden has found at least some Republicans willing to work on infrastructure in the aftermath of the Trump years.

When he endorsed a bipartisan Senate group’s deal earlier this summer, he stood with senators in both parties in a rare moment of comity in Washington.

Still, it’s true that Biden appears to enjoy time spent with members of the Senate more than his Democratic predecessor. And the styles of the two presidents are just different.

“Obama was more cerebral, depending on reason and rhetoric to make his case, but also more cautious and easily stymied when the arguments, good as they were, did not work,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

It’s also true that Biden has the fortune of seeing what did and didn’t work for Obama.

“Biden, of course, has gone to school on Obama and so has gone bigger and been willing to deal and bargain to get most, though often not all, of what he wants,” said Jillson.

Biden has been providing backing to different groups of senators on the infrastructure talks, inviting moderates to the White House and embracing their deal last month in a move that made progressives nervous.

On Wednesday, he was praising a deal put together by Sanders, whose work itself was earning compliments from a number of House and Senate liberals.

“Joe Biden is a master at the legislative endgame, particularly knowing how and when to engage the Senate,” the former senior adviser said. “He has smartly given the Senate moderates time and space to work out a plan and knows he’s now at the point to elevate his engagement.”

It remains to be seen whether Biden’s work will be successful. Neither the bipartisan infrastructure bill nor a broader reconciliation package have been turned into legislative language yet. Numerous hurdles remain.

And Biden has had no success in moving forward issues such as gun control and voting rights legislation, leading to criticism from liberals that he should do more to pressure Democrats to end the filibuster.

Jillson said Biden, like Obama, “has not yet shown a willingness to push his own side [and] demand that the Democrats stand together on the core parts of his agenda,” including voter rights. 

“It looks like part of the infrastructure agenda is actually coming together, but voting reform, more emotionally central to the Democrats, is still hanging fire,” he said.

Biden has taken an active role in negotiations on infrastructure in particular.

He has hosted lawmakers at the White House in groups and for one-on-one meetings, most recently huddling with Sanders for an hour on Monday as Democrats worked to get a reconciliation proposal in order.

Biden previously met solo with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) at the White House. The two moderate Democrats are among the most high-profile swing votes who could make or break the party’s chances of getting a reconciliation bill through the Senate.  

Biden used Wednesday’s lunch to thank senators for their work passing a $1.9 trillion economic relief law earlier this year and made the case for how his agenda would boost the economy and the middle class in particular. He highlighted how it would address climate change, a priority for progressives, and how it would be paid for by wealthier Americans, an area of concern for moderate Democrats.

Biden’s involvement in the weeks ahead could determine how successful his first year in office is and how it compares to Obama’s legislative record. 

Asked how Biden is doing on the legislative front since taking office, the first former Obama aide replied, “Considering Biden is trying to govern with the most narrow majority in decades, pretty well.”