Senate Begins Final Push On Voting Rights Bills With Eye To Filibuster Reform
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The Senate’s fight to pass voting rights legislation is poised to come to its conclusion in the next two weeks, as Democrats aim to finally show if they have the votes to unilaterally change the chamber’s filibuster currently standing in the way.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised to bring the party’s voting rights bills to the floor for votes and ― if they are blocked by filibusters again ― to push for changes to the filibuster rules to enable the bills’ passage by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17. But two Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), remain opposed to changing the filibuster. The fate of two voting rights bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, rest on whether they both change their minds.
The Senate is expected to first hold another test vote on one or both voting rights bills this week. The test vote, aimed at getting Republicans to filibuster the bills for a fifth time, will likely be held Wednesday or Thursday, according to Democratic sources with knowledge of the matter. Democrats would then turn to heightened negotiations over changing the filibuster rules.
Manchin is in “active conversation” with a small group of moderate Democrats about what changes to filibuster rules he could support, according to a senior Democratic source with knowledge of the negotiations. The negotiations with Manchin are being led by Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.). These three senators previously signed a letter in support of the filibuster, but have reluctantly come around over the past year to support changing the filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation.
The potential filibuster changes discussed with Manchin include a carve-out for voting rights legislation and some form of a talking filibuster that would put the onus on the minority to speak and hold at least 41 members on the Senate floor at once in order to block legislation. But Manchin has already publicly expressed his distaste for a carve-out, saying, “Anytime there’s a carve-out, you eat the whole turkey.” Still, Democrats are pleased that he remains engaged in negotiations.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled go to Atlanta to visit Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and lay a wreath at Martin Luther King Jr.’s burial site, before heading to Morehouse College for speeches on the voting rights push and the need to change filibuster rules on Tuesday.
An outside coalition of groups backing the voting rights bills is also organizing phone banks and letter-writing campaigns to urge Democratic senators to support changes to the filibuster. End Citizens United, a Democratic-aligned political action committee working to pass campaign finance reforms, is running $1.1 million in ads in Arizona and West Virginia to encourage Sinema and Manchin to back filibuster changes. Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader, has called for “no celebration without legislation” ahead of the national holiday honoring his father. King plans to hold “bridge walks” in Phoenix and Washington, D.C., in support of voting rights over the next two weeks.
Republicans, meanwhile, remain almost entirely unified in opposition to Democrats’ two voting rights bills, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) the lone defector in her support for the John Lewis bill. As talks about changing the filibuster rules have ramped up, Republicans have hinted at their potential support for other electoral reform legislation.
Last week, a group of Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), said they could support reforms of the Electoral Count Act aimed at preventing another attempted theft of a presidential election, as former President Donald Trump tried after losing in 2020. A bipartisan group including Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Manchin and Sinema, and Republicans Mitt Romney (Utah), Roger Wicker (Miss.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.), formed to discuss these changes. They are also reportedly discussing other compromise reforms, including some already included in the Freedom to Vote Act, according to Politico.
But voting rights advocates and Democratic leadership see Republicans’ last-minute gestures toward compromise as a diversion to prevent Democratic unity in their final push to pass the bills. They liken it to McConnell’s posturing over the debt ceiling in late 2021, when the Republican leader adamantly refused to negotiate, then ultimately struck a deal after filibuster reform changes seemed possible.
“It shows McConnell thinks we’re going to change the rules,” a senior Democratic source involved in the bill passage said.
After nearly a year of pushing voting rights legislation, the question of whether Democrats will change the rules will finally be answered. The party has emphasized ― and campaigned on ― the ongoing threat to voting rights, in the form of new voter suppression laws passed in Republican-run states and inspired by Trump’s unprecedented efforts to overturn his election loss. The next two weeks could inspire or badly demoralize the Democratic base, depending on the outcome.
“If the Senate and president don’t deliver this,” said Jana Morgan, head of the voting rights coalition Declaration for American Democracy, “it will be detrimental not only to the right to vote, but also to the confidence of the government to deliver for voters.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
