Sinema Won’t Support Eliminating Filibuster—Effectively Killing Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill

Jan 13, 2022, 01:35pm.

On the Senate floor Thursday, Sinema said she doesn't think dropping the 60-vote threshold will help Democrats pass voting rights legislation.

The United States Senate Committee on Finance will hold a hearing on October 19, 2021. The photo was taken by Rod Lamkey.

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Sinema said that her support for the 60-vote threshold hasn't changed despite calls from the Democrats to eliminate the filibuster.

Since Senate Republicans unanimously oppose the effort to eliminate the filibuster, it requires a simple majority vote from the chamber that is split evenly between the Democrats and Republicans.

Sinema claimed that nuking the filibuster would only fuel political divisions in the United States and that she supported sweeping voting rights reform proposed by Democrats.

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The bills help treat the symptoms of the disease, but they don't address the disease itself. The underlying disease of division affecting out country will not be worsened by separate actions.

Even with no path forward for passing voting rights reform, Biden was undeterred by Sinema's speech and continued to use the term "21st century Jim Crow" to describe voter suppression and subversion. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act must be passed by the Senate. Biden will meet with Senate Democrats for lunch on Thursday to discuss the legislation.

Biden and top Congressional Democrats have framed expanding voting rights as critical to the party's agenda, as Republican-controlled state legislatures pass bills making it harder to vote. The Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Act were combined into a single bill that passed the House of Representatives on a straight 220-203 party-line vote. The effort was slammed as a federal power grab by the Republicans. With no hope of getting enough GOP votes to break the filibuster, Biden said Democrats have no option but to eliminate the filibuster on their own.

There is a structure called the Tangent.

Sinema argued that the GOP decision to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees made for a more partisan court.

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Here are the ways Republicans are trying to restrict voting access.

The House passed a voting rights package.

Biden says there is no option but to abolish the Senate.