Tasked with advocating for the White House’s agenda on voting rights, Vice President Kamala Harris is under pressure to advance legislative filibuster reform after Democrats’ voting rights legislation collapsed in the Senate.
Activists have urged the White House to prioritize the issue, charging that the 60-vote threshold required to pass most legislation in the Senate has hamstrung President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ agenda.
Harris has said her focus is on coalition building and turnout, irking Democrats who say a carve-out for legislation that applies to the Constitution is needed. Doing so would allow Democratic lawmakers to pass a sweeping election reform bill without Republican support.
It’s a proposal backed by South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat, who last week told Politico that he had raised the issue with Harris directly.
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In an interview with NPR, Harris was asked whether she has talked with senators about a voting-rights exception to the filibuster.
“I don’t mean this in any offense, but I’m not going to negotiate this way. But I’m certainly having conversations with folks,” Harris said Tuesday when pressed on the issue.
But Harris has refrained from backing the proposal outright. A White House official poured cold water on suggestions that the vice president was focused on this, telling the Washington Examiner that Harris discusses a swathe of issues with senators, of which the filibuster is only one.
“It had come up in conversations along with other wide-ranging issues,” the official said.
In remarks on Wednesday, Harris stressed the administration’s commitment to voting rights nationwide.
“The issue of voting rights in America is probably among the most serious and significant issues that we are facing,” Harris said.
Harris has met with voting rights activists across the country this week.
Biden has also faced criticism from the Left for a perceived lack of commitment to advancing reform. In Pennsylvania this week, Biden called on Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both of which have stalled, and said he would sign both “immediately” into law.
Officials said that Biden, like Harris, is committed to fair voting.
The White House intends to use “every lever at our disposal to advocate for it and ensure people have access,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday. “One of those is certainly legislation, something [Biden] will continue to push for and advocate for, as will the vice president.”
Psaki said the White House would continue to engage with leaders in Congress on both the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
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Changes to the filibuster would be up to lawmakers. Psaki said that advocates for reform likely lack the votes to move forward.
“It is a legislative procedural process that is up to the Senate to determine. … I will leave it all to you to determine what the vote count and whip count is, but there is not a majority to support that,” Psaki said. “I know we’ve focused on one or two, but it’s certainly more than that, of individuals who oppose changes to the filibuster because of the history.”
