Realizing they lack a path to 51 votes, Senate Democrats appear ready to abandon a plan to add a minimum wage hike to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending package.

Senate Democrats said it’s now much more likely they will take up a wage hike in separate legislation and not on the broad COVID-19 spending package that they hope to usher into law.

“We are going to find another path, which we need to do,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. “Even though the parliamentarian has ruled and even though we may not have the votes right now, we will find another path.”

House Democrats passed the Biden coronavirus relief bill early Saturday morning. It includes a national mandate to set the minimum wage at $15 over the next four years.

The Senate is expected to take up the measure this week, but Democrats will have to take out the minimum wage hike unless they can come up with a unanimous vote among lawmakers in their party to override parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who said it violates special rules that govern the passage of the spending bill.

Democrats control only 50 votes and would need every Democrat plus the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to override MacDonough.

Despite pressure from the liberal base, they are unlikely to attempt an override because several centrist Democrats in the party object to the $15-an-hour mandate.

Democrats have also abandoned a proposal to abandon the wage hike mandate and instead install a tax on businesses that do not raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said the minimum wage provision “clearly cannot be on this reconciliation bill.”

He told reporters on Monday that passing a $15 minimum wage mandate would also be “very difficult” under the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation.

Democrats say their focus is on passing the spending measure, which includes $1,400 in new stimulus checks, $400 in enhanced federal jobless pay, new child tax credits, and hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out revenue-hungry state and local governments.

They are operating under a critical deadline: Enhanced federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14. The Biden bill would extend and increase those benefits until the end of August.

“Defeating the pandemic is national priority No. 1,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Democrats are now looking ahead to a possible vote to end the filibuster. Top Democrats have indicated ending the 60-vote threshold may be necessary to pass any of Biden’s top legislative properties that cannot pass through the special rules governing a simple majority passage.

Most Republicans oppose raising the minimum wage. Some have proposed a phased-in increase to $11 an hour.

Democrats want the $15-per-hour rate, and an end to the filibuster would be the only path to passage in this Congress. They will have to convince centrist Democrats, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who earlier this year called ending the filibuster “crazy talk.”

Durbin told reporters he supports ending the filibuster.

“Unfortunately, we’ve reached that point,” Durbin said. “And if enough members in the Senate agree, we’ll change the rules.”

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