Senate Democrats Tuesday began consideration of dual election and voting overhaul bills despite lacking enough support to overcome a GOP filibuster.
The action sets up a vote later in the week on changing the long-standing filibuster rules that is also set to fail due to opposition from centrist Democrats.
Lawmakers will debate the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, which Democrats say would ensure fair elections and provide voters adequate access to the polls.
While all 50 Democrats support the legislation, Republicans say the two measures are partisan and would federalize elections, lessen voter integrity, and provide Democrats with a political advantage.
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Unanimous opposition from the GOP means Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to end debate and pass the two bills, which are combined into one measure.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer nonetheless canceled a planned recess and summoned senators to publicly debate and vote on the two bills in a bid to portray the GOP as opponents of protecting voting rights.
The legislation would block voter integrity laws passed in nearly two dozen states that Democrats say will hinder voter access. Many of the state-level changes reversed the loosening of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as allowing mail-in voting and adding ballot drop boxes.
Democrats have likened the changes, which were imposed in red states, to an attack on civil rights.
“If the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the state level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?” Schumer said.
Schumer announced lawmakers will vote on a change in the filibuster rules later this week if Republicans block the bill, setting up a showdown within the Democratic Party.
Two Democratic centrists, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, announced last week they would not budge from their long-stated opposition to changing the 60 vote threshold. The two lawmakers, in separate statements, urged Republicans and Democrats to work together rather than change the rules in a way that will allow a simple majority to pass legislation.
Sinema delivered her statement on the Senate floor.
“Eliminating the 60 vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy from threats in the years to come,” Sinema said Thursday.
Democrats and President Joe Biden have unsuccessfully pressured Manchin and Sinema to vote to change the rules and carve out an exception to the filibuster for the voting rights legislation and perhaps other important party agenda items.
Schumer appears poised to force the two Democratic holdouts to vote on the filibuster, but it is unlikely to change the outcome. Without the backing of Manchin and Sinema, the filibuster will remain in place.
“Every member,” Schumer said, “will go on record.”
