The Senate will take up voting rights legislation Tuesday despite the Democrats appearing to lack the votes necessary to pass it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the plan Thursday evening, effectively acknowledging senators won’t meet his self-imposed deadline of Monday to vote on changing filibuster rules if the Republicans continued to oppose voting reforms.
“Due to the circumstances regarding COVID and another potentially hazardous winter storm approaching the D.C. area this weekend, the Senate will adjourn tonight,” the New York Democrat said in the Senate chamber.
One Senate Democrat, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, announced Thursday he was isolating after testing positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19.
“However, we will be postponing recess so the Senate can vote on voting rights. We will return on Tuesday to take up the House-passed message containing voting rights legislation,” Schumer added. “Make no mistake, the United States Senate will, for the first time this Congress, debate voting rights legislation beginning on Tuesday.”
DEMOCRATS’ AGENDA PLUNGES INTO UNCERTAINTY FOLLOWING BIDEN VISIT
Already anticipating that Republicans will block the advancement of the legislation, which passed the House on Thursday, Schumer said the Senate will vote on changing the upper chamber rules.
“And if Senate Republicans choose obstruction over protecting the sacred right to vote, as we expect them to, the Senate will consider and vote on changing the Senate rules, as has been done many times before, to allow for passage of voting rights legislation,” he said.
President Joe Biden visited Capitol Hill earlier in the day to meet with Senate Democrats, after which he offered a grim diagnosis of efforts to pass voting reform legislation.
.@SenSchumer: “Due to the circumstances regarding COVID and another potentially hazard winter storm approaching the DC area this weekend, the Senate will adjourn tonight. However, we will be postponing recess so Senate can vote on voting rights. We will return on Tuesday…” pic.twitter.com/0Dj8s5pIPU
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 14, 2022
“I hope we can get this done,” Biden told reporters. “The honest-to-God answer is I don’t know whether we can get this done.”
Before Biden spoke, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced her opposition to changing the filibuster, which is the only way Democrats could pass the election legislation over the unanimous objection of Republicans. “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.
Biden is agitated leaving meeting with Senate Dems: “The honest to god answer is, I don’t know we can get this done…But I know one thing, as long as I have a breath in me…I’m going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures have moved.” pic.twitter.com/SzbLGTUuag
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 13, 2022
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, is also opposed to the rule change. Biden met with Sinema and Manchin later in the evening at the White House, but no news about either senator having a change of heart has been reported as of press time.
“The president hosted Sen. Manchin and Sen. Sinema at the White House tonight for a candid and respectful exchange of views about voting rights,” a White House official said.
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Other Democrats argue changing the long-standing filibuster is justified because their election overhaul legislation is needed to combat red-state voter integrity laws they believe will limit voter access. Republicans have been resistant to federal laws that govern how states and localities run their elections.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, called Sinema’s floor speech an “act of political courage” that “saved the Senate as an institution.”
