Rep. Jim Clyburn is urging President Joe Biden to get behind a mechanism to bypass Republicans and pass voting reforms with only Democratic support.
Clyburn said Biden “should endorse” his proposal to create a carveout to the Senate’s filibuster for legislation that applies to the Constitution, thereby allowing Democrats to enact H.R. 1, their sweeping elections reform proposal, as well as a second bill reauthorizing portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, without any GOP votes.
“I don’t care whether he does it in a microphone or on the telephone. Just do it,” he told Politico.
BIDEN FACES UNCERTAIN POLITICS OF THE FILIBUSTER AS HIS AGENDA STALLS IN CONGRESS
Biden could “pick up the phone and tell [Sen.] Joe Manchin, ‘Hey, we should do a carveout,'” Clyburn told the outlet, a suggestion that he said he’s shared with several administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
Clyburn made a similar suggestion in March, citing a Supreme Court exemption as evidence that the filibuster should not apply to voting rights and civil rights legislation.
Ever since Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist, announced his opposition to his party’s 800-page election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act, many Democrats have voiced support for eliminating the Senate’s legislative filibuster, a protocol that effectively mandates 60 votes for passing legislation, a daunting task given Democrats’ slim Senate majority.
Despite the growing pressure, Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a fellow centrist Democrat, have dug in their heels, opposing the abolition of the filibuster on the grounds that it forces members of the Senate to cooperate in a bipartisan fashion.
“[The filibuster] means the big guy doesn’t pick on the little guy,” Manchin said. “I’ve been in the minority. I’ve been in the majority. So, all I’m trying to protect is basically civility but making it work.”
Manchin has instead teamed up with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, to urge a bipartisan reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, a more modest reform than the Democrats’ would-be sweeping overhaul.
“Congress must come together, just as we have done time and again, to reaffirm our long-standing bipartisan commitment to free, accessible, and secure elections for all. … Protecting Americans’ access to democracy has not been a partisan issue for the past 56 years, and we must not allow it to become one now,” Murkowski and Manchin wrote of the proposal.
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Without Manchin’s support, H.R. 1, which passed the House on March 3, will likely fail in the Senate, given uniform Republican opposition to the measure.
Representatives for Clyburn, Manchin, and the White House did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
