That political reality in the Senate is likely to spur negotiations with the GOP about concessions that would be tough to stomach for many progressive Democrats, including longtime civil rights advocates who invested significant energy in the House’s policing bill. And as a result, pressure is sure to mount on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to nuke the filibuster once and for all.

“To get any other good bills passed, such as police reform, we’re going to need to — in my view — talk about filibuster reform,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who described the previous GOP offer on the issue as “not acceptable.”

The Democrats’ policing measure passed entirely along party lines in the House, though it contains key provisions that both parties rallied behind in the wake of last summer’s racial reckoning.

Schumer told reporters Wednesday that getting the bill to the Senate floor was a “very, very high priority” for Democrats.

“We are not going to settle for some bill that does nothing and is symbolic,” he said. “We will work very, very hard to get it passed. We will have a vote on the floor on it.”

But whatever can pass the Senate on policing is bound to look different from the House’s hard-won legislation. Senators in both parties said this week that they could make a renewed attempt at compromise on the bill’s most prominent — and most popular — measures, such as banning chokeholds or “no-knock” warrants.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who led his chamber’s GOP police reform effort during the last Congress, predicted that the House bill would go nowhere in the Senate, noting “it’s the same one that they passed before.” However, Scott said he’d spoken to his Democratic counterpart, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, in policing talks as recently as last weekend.

“It just depends on their definition of bipartisan,” Scott said, when asked if a compromise was possible. “It depends on whether or not their bill includes demonizing police officers or not.”

Following the House’s passage of the bill, Booker said that he was encouraged by conversations with senators on both sides of the aisle and vowed “to advance policing reform through the Senate.”

Resolving differences between the parties could prove particularly troublesome when it comes to eliminating qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields police officers from lawsuits and makes it harder to hold them accountable when a crime is committed on the job.

Underscoring the trouble ahead for the House-passed bill, Senate Republicans this week accused Democrats of blocking reform efforts last year by filibustering the GOP version of the bill. Democrats counter that the previous proposal was inadequate.

And any compromise that amounts to less than the House-passed bill would be a disappointment to the cadre of civil rights groups that have spent years, or even decades, fighting for many of the policy changes in the House policing bill.

Democrats say they’ve seen unparalleled clamor for policing reform from their base, perhaps more than any other single issue in recent years. Groups such as the NAACP, National Urban League and National Action Network are stepping up their pressure on lawmakers, calling for the passage of the House-approved bill and working with allies in Congress.

“We need to center the concerns of people who live every day with the tragic contradictions of our criminal justice system. We need to keep in mind the victims and their families,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, elected this year as Georgia’s first Black senator. “I think too often in the process of legislation, the urgency and the human side of what’s at stake gets lost. And so I hope to amplify that.”

Several leaders of prominent civil rights organizations said they have been in contact with Congressional Black Caucus members over the last week to reinforce their desire to see this legislation make it to Biden’s desk.

But they also acknowledged that reaching their goal won’t be easy.

“We’re full speed ahead,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans. Even so, he added, “we’re going to have some work to do” in the Senate.

Morial said he and other civil rights leaders plan to talk with senators who are on the fence about the House policing legislation.

Now that the House has passed a measure “that’s reflective of what we have been advocating for,” said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, “we will recalibrate and start over” with active outreach to senators.

House-Senate conversations already are unfolding behind the scenes. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), a lead author of the bill, has been privately speaking with Booker and Scott as they attempt to find a path forward this year. (Booker’s office did not provide comment for this story.)

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a freshman who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County and made policing a major part of his campaign, said House Democrats will need to keep squeezing their counterparts across the Capitol to finally end policies like qualified immunity.

“We have to work behind the scenes with our colleagues in the Senate, to help them understand how this is better for, not just communities of color and poor communities, but it’s better for the country,” Bowman said. He stressed there’s more to do: “This is the floor, not the ceiling.”

A bipartisan group that included Bass, Scott and Booker made progress toward a compromise last year, though things fell apart as the election neared. Police reform advocates also took hope last year as Republicans like Sens. Mike Braun of Indiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky publicly expressed interest in holding police officers accountable — even endorsing some changes to qualified immunity. But it’s unclear how much that dynamic has changed in a Democratic-controlled Washington.

One thing that’s already shifted is the political spotlight on Schumer, who’s up for reelection next year and has vowed that the Senate will not be a “legislative graveyard” under his leadership. He’s hearing increasingly vocal calls from House Democrats to nix the Senate’s 60-vote threshold — including from two of Pelosi’s top deputies.

Both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) this week called for changes to the legislative filibuster, citing the fate of the House-passed policing bill as well as its sweeping voting rights bill — both issues that disproportionately affect Black Americans.

The Senate’s tough odds for progressive legislation sparked an emotional recollection from Clyburn Tuesday. Telling reporters of his arrest 60 years ago this week for sitting at a whites-only lunch counter, he vowed that “we are not going to give up on this.”

“Nobody thought that day that one of those little 20-year-olds arrested on that day would be standing here today,” Clyburn said moments after railing against the Senate’s filibuster, which was used in the past to block civil rights legislation.

“We’re not going to just give in to these arcane methods of denying progress,” Clyburn said.

The bill’s so-called vote-a-rama now may begin on Friday, instead of on Thursday, as a result of delays on Wednesday in getting a Congressional Budget Office score for the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bill. That’s a key step in the process, ensuring Democrats can use budget reconciliation and its simple majority requirement instead of needing 60 votes — and the support of 10 Republicans.

Johnson and other Republicans are vowing to make the vote-a-rama lengthy and uncomfortable for Democrats with what they view as tough votes. And timing is important: Enhanced unemployment benefits shut off on March 14 and Democrats say they need to pass their bill well in advance to give states time to avoid missing payments. Plus, the House will still need to approve the Senate’s changes.

Though Senate Democrats and Biden agreed to keep unemployment bonus payments at $400 per week through August, mirroring the House proposal, some Republicans or centrist Democrats could offer amendments trimming that down to $300 per week. Increasing the intrigue, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has not officially decided she’s against the bill, and Biden and Democrats would be ebullient to receive any GOP support.

Biden and Democrats also agreed to more narrowly target the next round of $1,400 stimulus payments, phasing out completely for single filers at $80,000 and joint filers at $160,000. But Democrats will have to stick together to make sure their carefully negotiated truce is not upset by GOP amendments. In the last amendment series, moderate Democrats infuriated progressives by approving an amendment barring undocumented immigrants from getting stimulus checks. House Democrats are watching closely.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that House Democrats would like to study the compromise on unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, but said, “So far, so good.”

Some progressives seemed skeptical of the deal, but stopped short of saying it would jeopardize the near-lockstep support that Pelosi needs to get the amended Senate bill through the House in the coming days.

“I just — I don’t like that this is being narrowed,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “I feel like the survival checks are the easiest, simplest, most popular, populist, proposal. But let me take a look at what it actually means in terms of numbers of people.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is also planning to offer an amendment that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, despite the Senate parliamentarian ruling that including that provision would violate Senate rules. While the amendment is expected to fail, it will put Democrats on record over whether they support the boost. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Jon Tester of Montana are among those whose vote will be watched on the Sanders amendment.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) went the furthest of any Democratic senator asked about the issue. Although she put trust in the attorney general’s investigation, she suggested that “there may come a tipping point with regard to Gov. Cuomo where he should resign.”

The #MeToo movement that erupted into a nationwide confrontation of sexual harassment in 2017, fueled in part by Donald Trump’s election, ended the careers of members of Congress in both parties. Perhaps no one became a bigger symbol of the Democratic Party’s attempt to enact a political zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment than Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who resigned after seven women accused him of touching them inappropriately. But senators view the allegations against Cuomo differently than those against Franken, who was a colleague.

While Cuomo is well-known and could run for higher office, senators are largely leaving it up to New York state officials to decide the governor’s political fate.

“I’m glad there’s going to be a very rigorous investigation by the attorney general. The most important thing is that the women be heard and taken seriously,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). As to whether Cuomo should step down, she said: “At this point I think people in New York need to decide that.”

Democrats also decried allegations of sexual assault against Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation fight, but that situation was even more distinct: Kavanaugh was a nominee that they had an obligation to vet.

“One of the baselines is that claims like this should be investigated. You now have an investigation in New York by the attorney general, and I assume she will make recommendations,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “So the difference is — Al never got that.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) predicted Cuomo was a “goner,” but compared the governor’s situation to Franken’s this way: “The Senate polices its own.”

New York’s two Democratic senators, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have strongly endorsed the attorney general’s investigation into Cuomo. Although Cuomo said he plans to cooperate with the investigation and apologized for making the women uncomfortable, the governor made clear Wednesday that he has no intention of resigning. In addition to sexual harassment allegations, Cuomo also faces an investigation into his handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

So far, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) is the only member of the state’s delegation to call for Cuomo’s resignation. Rice urged Franken to step down during his own #MeToo flap in 2017 days before Gillibrand became the first senator to call on her colleague to leave office.

Other Democratic members of the New York delegation, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, are waiting for the investigation to play out. Rep. Yvette Clarke told reporters that she is “a really big fan of due process,” while Rep. Gregory Meeks described the issue as a “very, very serious thing.”

The allegations against Cuomo began last week, when his former aide, Lindsey Boylan, wrote an essay that accused the governor of asking her to play strip poker and of forcibly kissing her on the lips. Days later, a second former aide, Charlotte Bennett, said that Cuomo asked her about her sex life, including whether she’d consider having sex with older men. A third woman, Anna Ruch, came forward this week and said Cuomo asked her if he could kiss her at a wedding reception.

“Any public official has to realize that what they say in the workplace is subject to scrutiny,” said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who declined to weigh in on Cuomo’s future. “In these instances, these women are having a difficult time and are under a lot of pressure coming forward. And they’ve got to be heard. It’s more than just a review of actions. Things that you say are relevant.”

Some in the GOP see a double standard in Democrats’ treatment of Cuomo compared with other high-profile misconduct allegations, although Trump faced more than 20 allegations of sexual harassment and assault, which Republicans rarely addressed. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

Even so, outside of Schumer and Gillibrand, several Senate Democrats said that they are not paying much attention to the Cuomo controversy and showed little eagerness to talk about it.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said he did not live in New York and has “zero thoughts.” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said she is focused on President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan. When asked for comment, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he had the “the same one everyone else is making: complete the investigation.”

One senator, addressing the thorny topic on condition of anonymity, said that Democrats have been reluctant to publicly call on Cuomo to resign despite having no tolerance for sexual harassment allegations because it’s a controversy in another state. Constituents don’t want senators meddling in other states’ business, the senator added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who berated Democrats for their treatment of Kavanaugh during his confirmation, said that his colleagues are “wrapped around the axle.”

“They were loud, vocal, ‘Kavanaugh needs to go’,” Graham said. “Now they got somebody, a prominent Democrat, and they’re figuring out how to handle it. Here’s my advice: Handle them all the same. That way you don’t have to worry about it.”

Anna Gronewold contributed to this report.