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Category: voting rights bills

  • Sanders Says Manchin and Sinema Are Undermining US Democracy

    Sen. Bernie Sanders Holds Press Conference On The Budget

    Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday that by vowing to uphold the archaic Senate rule standing in the way of voting rights legislation, his Senate colleagues Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are putting “the future of American democracy” at risk.

    “It is a sad day when two members of the Democratic caucus are prepared to allow the Freedom to Vote Act to fail,” the Vermont senator tweeted. “I hope very much they will reconsider their positions.”

    Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to weakening the 60-vote filibuster rule — a stance they reiterated Thursday — effectively tanks their party’s hopes of passing voting rights legislation to thwart the GOP’s mass disenfranchisement and election subversion efforts in states across the country.

    Despite the likelihood of failure, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY.) said the Senate will debate the newly assembled Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act on Tuesday, a day after the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

    “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,” Schumer said in a floor speech after Sinema made clear she would not back any such changes, intensifying calls for a 2024 primary challenge.

    The support of every member of the Senate Democratic caucus and a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris would be needed to enact a rule change.

    With federal action likely not forthcoming, local Democratic officials and activists “now say they are resigned to having to spend and organize their way around” the slew of fresh Republican-authored voting restrictions, the New York Times reported, “a prospect many view with hard-earned skepticism.”

    In a July letter to President Joe Biden, a coalition of 150 civil rights organizations wrote that “while we support the notion of a broad-based coalition of advocates, we cannot and should not have to organize our way out of the attacks and restrictions on voting that lawmakers are passing and proposing at the state level.”

    “Nor can we litigate our way out of this threat to democracy,” the groups warned. “We must remember that at critical times in our history, one party has been forced to act alone in securing the fundamental democratic rights of American citizens, including Congress’ passage of both the 14th and 15th Amendments. Any rule or procedure that functions to stop bills from ever being considered on the floor is not a procedure to promote debate; it is a procedure to promote gridlock.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Critics Lambaste Sinema’s Opposition to Filibuster Changes

    Sen. Kyrsten Sinema arrives for a meeting between President Joe Biden and the Senate Democratic Caucus to discuss the passing of legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote and the integrity of elections, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., January 13, 2022.

    During a Thursday speech on the Senate floor, conservative Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) announced that she would not support changing the filibuster rule, potentially dooming any chance of voting rights legislation being passed in the foreseeable future.

    On Thursday, Sinema claimed that the filibuster debate was “harried,” adding that she believed that there “could have and should have been a thoughtful public debate at any time over the past year.” Her comments ignore several months of discussion (and weeks of negotiations) on the subject, both inside and outside of the Senate.

    Sinema also claimed that she isn’t opposed to a “legislative response” to the voting restrictions that have been enacted in GOP-led states across the country. But she also can’t “support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division,” she said.

    Her remarks came briefly after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) announced a plan to begin the process of addressing the filibuster. Schumer promised a vote to change the filibuster by next week, though he didn’t go into detail about specific changes he wants to pursue.

    “Every senator will be faced with a choice of whether or not to pass the legislation to protect our democracy,” Schumer said in a statement announcing the plan.

    Several political commentators on social media said that Sinema would be responsible if Democrats fail to pass voting rights legislation.

    “Sinema is speaking on the Senate floor and, get this, criticizing GOP state legislatures for restricting voting rights,” MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said. “But… what is she going to do about it at the federal level? Many of us wait with baited breath.”

    “Sinema is effectively asking the authors of Jim Crow and vote-rigging to give their permission for her to stop it,” said Jennifer Rubin, a Washington Post opinion columnist. “This is worse than incoherent or cowardice. It’s a moral disgrace.”

    Rubin continued by speculating whether Sinema would “ask the segregationists for permission to vote for [the 1964] Civil Rights Act,” were she voting on the bill decades ago.

    That law was passed at a time when a “talking filibuster” rule was in place, rather than the current form of the filibuster, which doesn’t require lawmakers to speak nonstop. Reenacting the talking filibuster is one of the reform options currently being considered by Democrats.

    Some observers also rejected Sinema’s insistence that she was protecting the filibuster out of respect for bipartisanship.

    “Sinema is saying that the filibuster simply ensures that lawmakers bring legislation that is broadly supported by the American people,” said HuffPost Washington Bureau Chief Amanda Terkel. “That’s just not true. Plenty of legislation has wide public support. But it still doesn’t go anywhere.”

    “Ultimately, Sinema’s speech isn’t an exercise of bipartisanship. It’s one that serves to protect power that Democrats and Republicans alike enjoy,” wrote Jalil Smith, a senior correspondent for Vox. “Proclamations of support for voting rights from any Senator unwilling to eliminate the filibuster are just scenery for the gullible.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Schumer Announces Procedural Plan That Will Lead to Vote on Filibuster Changes

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on January 4, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

    Senate Democrats have developed a plan to advance voting rights legislation by temporarily evading a GOP filibuster.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) detailed the plan in a memo to the Democratic caucus on Wednesday.

    The plan will begin in the House, where lawmakers will pass an unrelated bill regarding funding for NASA. The bill will be sent to the Senate as a “message,” which will allow Democrats to open debate on the legislation with only a simple majority, rather than the usual 60-vote threshold required for new bills.

    Instead of voting on the NASA bill, Democrats will strip the language from the bill and replace it with language from voting rights bills that Republicans have blocked numerous times over the past year.

    While this plan avoids an initial filibuster, final passage of voting rights legislation will still require a confrontation on the Senate rule at some point. Either Republicans will have to allow a vote on the bill without blocking it — a highly unlikely possibility — or Democrats, faced with a GOP filibuster, will have to amend the rule after the bill is blocked.

    “To ultimately end debate and pass the voting rights legislation, we will need 10 Republicans to join us — which we know from past experience will not happen — or we will need to change the Senate rules as has been done many times before,” Schumer wrote in his memo.

    At that point, “every senator will be faced with a choice of whether or not to pass the legislation to protect our democracy,” Schumer added.

    Currently, the specific changes to the filibuster that Schumer intends to propose are unclear, although there are several possible options. Democrats could restore the “talking filibuster,” which would require a senator to speak nonstop in order to block legislation. They could also create a “carve-out” that allows exceptions to the filibuster rule if a bill relates to voting rights. Finally, Democrats could opt to ditch the rule altogether – but although progressive advocates have repeatedly called for the elimination of the filibuster, it’s unlikely that this measure will be considered.

    Even members of the Senate Democratic caucus are unsure which path Schumer plans to take.

    “I really don’t know what the leader is thinking at this stage. He has not shared that with us,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland).

    Meanwhile, Democrats have had difficulty negotiating with conservative senators who want to keep the filibuster in place, like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia). Shortly before President Joe Biden gave a speech on voting rights and the need to change the filibuster rule, Manchin told a reporter that he’d only support an alteration to the rule if it had broad bipartisan support — a highly unlikely scenario.

    Moderates in the Senate Democratic caucus have been negotiating with Manchin on the filibuster for weeks. Recently, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said that Manchin’s inconsistency has been a major obstacle.

    “You think you’re just about there. You think you’ve got an agreement on most of the things and it’s settling in. And then you come back the next morning and you’re starting from scratch,” the source said.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Biden Will Back Filibuster Changes After Pressure From Voting Rights Groups

    President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a ceremony in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

    President Joe Biden plans to give a speech on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss the need to pass voting rights legislation at the federal level — and to express his support for changing the filibuster rule in the U.S. Senate to do so.

    Republicans have used the Senate filibuster to block major voting rights bills four times over the past year. As GOP-led state legislatures across the country impose voting restrictions in response to Trump’s 2020 election loss, advocates have demanded that Democrats enact voting rights protections, even if that requires limiting the power of the filibuster.

    Prior to the announcement that Biden will support changing the filibuster, a coalition of voting rights groups said that the president shouldn’t come to Georgia unless he had a plan for passing voting protections through both houses of Congress.

    Speaking on voting rights without a strategy to address the filibuster issue would be “an empty gesture,” the coalition said, adding that it would “reject any visit by President Biden that does not include an announcement of a finalized voting rights plan.”

    Since the coalition released their statement, the president has prepared a speech about the need to change the filibuster in order to pass voting rights bills, which he plans to give upon his arrival in Georgia.

    “The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden plans to say on Tuesday. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch.”

    “I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the president will go on. “And so the question is: where will the institution of the United States Senate stand?”

    Democrats in the Senate have yet to determine the specific changes to the filibuster rule they will actually propose. Negotiations between moderate members in that chamber have stalled, due in large part to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-West Virginia) lack of consistency on the issue.

    Manchin is an ardent defender of the filibuster, so it’s likely that any adjustments will be minimal, as changing the rule would require the support of all 50 senators in the Democratic caucus. But Manchin’s stance seems to change from one day to the next, sources close to the negotiations have said.

    “You think you’re just about there. You think you’ve got an agreement on most of the things and it’s settling in. And then you come back the next morning and you’re starting from scratch,” one source said, adding that trying to get Manchin’s support for changing the rule has been “like negotiating via Etch A Sketch.”

    Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) promised a vote on changes to the filibuster by January 17 if Republicans continue to block voting rights legislation. Although that deadline is getting closer, Schumer hasn’t yet proposed specific changes to the rule.

    In order to change the filibuster rule and pass voting rights legislation, the Senate “must evolve, like it has many times before,” Schumer said.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Manchin Filibuster Talks Like “Negotiating Via Etch A Sketch,” Dem Sources Say

    Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to reporters outside his office on Capitol Hill on January 4, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

    Democrats have been negotiating with Sen. Joe Manchin, a right-wing Democrat from West Virginia, so that they can amend the filibuster rule and pass voting rights legislation. But Democratic insiders say the process has been difficult — and one source even compared it to “negotiating via Etch A Sketch.”

    Insiders told Axios that Manchin has been inconsistent throughout negotiations, changing what he wants out of a deal from one day to the next.

    “You think you’re just about there. You think you’ve got an agreement on most of the things and it’s settling in. And then you come back the next morning and you’re starting from scratch,” the source said.

    That same source described the talks with Manchin as being “like negotiating via Etch A Sketch,” referencing a children’s toy that erases itself at the slightest disturbance or shake.

    Democrats are focusing on finding a way to pass voting rights protections before the 2022 midterm races, in hopes of preventing Republican-run state legislatures from further disenfranchising voters across the nation. But Republican lawmakers have utilized the filibuster to block major voting rights bills four times in the past year, including a version of the For the People Act proposed by Manchin; for such a law to be passed without GOP obstruction, there must be changes to filibuster.

    Even as Democrats promise to set up a vote on changing the filibuster later this month, Manchin refuses to get on board, claiming that the action is too partisan, even if it means passing much-needed voting rights legislation. Manchin has said that he doesn’t want to support a voting rights bill unless the bill is bipartisan, a demand many in the Democratic Party have said is unreasonable.

    “The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) said in an interview over the weekend. “It was a single-party vote that gave Black people the right to vote.”

    Democrats are trying to persuade Manchin to support one of a few possible changes to the filibuster. In negotiations, they have discussed removing the filibuster requirement for all bills relating to voting rights; lowering the threshold needed for a cloture vote on a filibuster; and returning to a “talking filibuster,” which would require senators to stand and speak non-stop.

    Most of the negotiations seem to involve three moderate members of the Senate Democratic caucus, who until recently were also wary of changing filibuster rules. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Jon Tester (D-Montana), and Angus King (I-Maine) have all taken part in the talks with Manchin, trying to convince him to back the effort to change the rules.

    Democrats have also been trying to entice Manchin in other ways, including getting big names to call his office directly. Per reporting from Politico, Manchin has received phone calls from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, urging him to end his stubborn defense of the filibuster in its current form. Famed talk show host Oprah Winfrey has also reportedly called Manchin’s office to try to convince him that the filibuster isn’t worth defending if it means the right to vote is imperiled.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.