(CNN)House and Senate Democrats are bracing for a clash over the next phase of President Joe Biden's agenda, preparing for a long slog and intense debate over competing priorities and legislative tactics after quickly coming together on the massive relief plan signed into law Thursday.
A wide array of Democrats in both parties, in the rank-and-file and in their party's leadership, recognize the next chapter will be far more difficult than passing the sweeping $1.9 trillion relief legislation, even as that effort proved to be an arduous task as they pushed through the measure by the slimmest of margins with near-total Democratic support in both chambers of Congress.
Now Democrats are in sharp disagreement over core elements of the next agenda items -- on infrastructure, climate change and immigration -- both on key policy areas as well as whether Congress should begin to pay attention to the eye-popping federal budget deficit, as a growing number of moderate Democrats want.
Plus, the House has already passed an array of bills that Democrats have long campaigned on: expanding background checks on firearms sales, making it easier to unionize and expanding access to voting. But all those measures stand little chance of clearing the 60 votes needed to advance legislation in the Senate -- unless Democrats in that body gut the filibuster, an issue already badly dividing their party as progressives lack the votes to make fundamental changes to the slow-moving institution.
