Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down a major Democratic voting rights bill by opposing an effort to bring the bill itself to a vote, setting up a showdown among Senate Democrats over whether they will change the Senate's filibuster rules in order to pass the legislation as President Joe Biden has demanded.
Senate Democrats began to push for federal voting rights legislation in response to GOP-controlled states passing bills that restricted voting and election administration. They've continued to face opposition to the voting measures from within their own ranks.
The "Freedom To Vote: John R. Lewis Act" was blocked by Senate rules that require 60 senators to bring most legislation to a vote. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is a bill that restores and refortifies parts of the Voting Rights Act that the federal courts have struck down or weakened.
The bill was fast-tracked by Congressional Democrats in order to ensure that it would get a debate on the Senate floor.
The NASA lease bill was stripped of its text and replaced with two other bills, which the House passed along party lines on Thursday.
Most legislation requires 60 votes to proceed to debate. It only needed a simple majority of 51 votes to advance to debate because the underlying NASA legislation had already been considered by both the House and the Senate.
The legislation needed a majority of 60 votes in the Senate to move forward. All 50 Senate Republicans voted against ending debate on the bill on Wednesday after several hours of debate.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold a vote on changes to the Senate's filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation. Schumer will use the so-called "nuclear option" to change the chamber's filibuster rules along party lines, which derives from those who view it as an extreme workaround on Senate rules.
Changes to the Senate rules usually require a two-thirds majority. Senate leaders can change the filibuster with a simple majority. The nuclear option was used by the Senate to lower the threshold for executive branch and federal court nominees.
Manchin spoke to the media after the senate democrats luncheon on Capitol Hill.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Democrats have a hard time changing the Senate's filibuster.
The lack of unity within the Democratic caucus and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia's continued opposition to major reforms make it unlikely that substantial changes to the filibuster will be made.
President Biden went to Capitol Hill to lobby Senate Democrats on voting rights.
Sinema took to the Senate floor before Biden's visit for a rare public speech throwing a bucket of ice water on changing the 60-vote threshold, which she said has a "role in protecting our country from wild reversals from federal policy."
She said that the voting rights measures do not fully address the disease. I will not support actions that will make the disease of division worse in our country.
Biden's attempts to get Manchin to support the current 60-vote threshold fell flat.
The Senate's greatest rule is not always known. Manchin said on the Senate floor that the rule of self-restraint is the greatest rule in the world. If the nuclear option is executed, I cannot be a party.
Manchin and Sinema are likely to oppose Schumer's plan for a one-time rules change that would require Republicans to sustain a talking filibuster in order to block the voting rights bill.
A talking filibuster would make it more difficult to block legislation, but it could also cause a halt to all other work in the chamber.
Due to Manchin and Sinema's opposition to lowering the 60-vote cloture threshold, the chances of voting rights legislation overcoming unanimous opposition from all Senate Republicans are slim to none.
The failure is a major blow to the Biden White House. Voting rights advocates have been frustrated by the lack of progress on voting rights legislation at the federal level.
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