The Chamber embraces Biden. And Republicans are livid. [View all]

[DonViejo]

The influential trade organization says it's taking the same approach to the new administration as it did with Trump.

By THEODORIC MEYER and CAITLIN OPRYSKO

02/12/2021 04:30 AM EST

Washington’s most powerful trade group is having a political identity crisis.

Over the past month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has taken a series of steps that have enraged its traditional Republican allies. It applauded much of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan to Covid relief bill; cheered Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris climate agreement; backed the former leader of the liberal Center of American Progress, Neera Tanden, for Office of Management and Budget director; and expressed openness to raising the minimum wage, though not to $15 an hour.

That’s left the Chamber, a K Street institution known for its bruising battles with past Democratic administrations, occupying an increasingly lonely political center, caught between angry Republicans who feel the trade group has abandoned them and Democrats who are pursuing policies anathema to many of their members.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who publicly bashed the Chamber’s endorsement of Tanden, said in an interview that the Chamber “has forgotten Main Street America” and would have to decide what it wanted to be in Biden’s Washington.

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https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/12/chamber-of-commerce-biden-468820