What Democrats could actually do if they win Congress

They’ve made big promises. But they’d also face significant limits on their power, from the Senate filibuster and Trump’s veto pen to White House tactics that could delay or derail oversight. Which moves from a Democratic Congress would be symbolic and which could have an immediate impact on real-world outcomes? To get a better sense of what Democrats could actually do if they won power in Congress, I spoke to current and former congressional aides as well as plugged-in outside experts. Whether they can do this will depend in part on politics and messaging, but also on how they use the formal tools that would be newly available to them with a congressional takeover: legislation, investigations, and — in the case of a Senate win — the confirmation process. Often, if one or both chambers flip in the midterms, a bold new majority tries to use one of these bills to make policy demands on the president, believing the bill’s “must-pass” status gives them leverage. And don’t scoff — though partisan battles will get all the headlines, there’s still a surprising amount of bipartisan action on substantive issues in Congress. And this year, a bipartisan housing bill became law, and Congress hopes to pass an electricity permitting reform deal before the end of the year, too. That’s a potential way to get something Trump doesn’t like into law — get enough Republicans on board, and hope that either Trump will conclude it’s too much of a headache to veto it, or that support in Congress is so strong his veto will fail (two-thirds of both the House and Senate can vote to override a veto). But, to get those bills to Trump’s desk, they’d have to get the consent of Republican negotiators in Congress.