The Senate voted against a one-time change to the chamber's filibuster rules late Wednesday night, with two key Democrats striking the final nail in the coffin for their party's efforts to pass their signature voting rights package.
All 50 Senate Republicans and two Democrats voted against a proposal that would have required Republicans to maintain a talking filibuster in order to block the passage of the voting rights bill.
On Wednesday, all 50 Republicans blocked a motion to invoke cloture on the bill, which required a 60-vote majority to advance.
The vote is a major blow for President Joe Biden's domestic agenda and for congressional Democrats, who failed to unify their caucus in order to pass legislation that top Democrats, including Biden, cast as imperative to save American democracy from GOP-led attacks on voting rights and fair elections at the state The Republicans argued that the bill was a power grab by Democrats and that the powers of states to run elections were being taken away.
The one-time return to the talking filibuster for the voting bill was the result of Manchin and Sinema throwing cold water on other proposals.
It would be more difficult to block a bill in the Senate if a senator or group of them in opposition spoke continuously on the floor.
Changes to Senate procedure in the 1970s allowed the chamber to work on multiple bills at once, which has led to a decrease in the number of talking filibusters.
Senate Republicans should not be allowed to sit in their office if they oppose voting rights. Schumer said in a Tuesday evening press conference that they had to come down on the floor and defend their opposition to voting rights.
"After members of the minority party have exhausted all of their speaking rights and defended their position on the Senate floor, the debate will have run its course and the Senate will vote on final passage at a majority threshold, which has always been the threshold for final passage," he explained.
Changes to the Senate rules usually require a two-thirds majority. Senate leaders can change the filibuster with a simple majority. The "nuclear option" is a nickname that stems from people who think it's an extreme way to circumvent Senate rules.
The nuclear option was used by the Senate to lower the cloture threshold to a simple majority to confirm executive branch and federal court nominees. McConnell did it again for Supreme Court nominees.
The threshold to end debate on most legislation below 60 votes has always been opposed to by Manchin and Sinema. Manchin does not want to make changes to filibuster rules via the nuclear option.
The only sitting senator who voted against lowering the 60-vote threshold with the nuclear option was a Democrat from West Virginia.
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.
Sinema upstaged Biden by taking to the Senate floor again to reiterate her support for maintaining the 60-vote cloture threshold before Biden's visit to Senate Democrats' closed-door caucus meeting on January 13 to lobby for voting rights and filibuster changes.
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.
Mark Kelly, who is facing reelection in 2022, voted in favor of the change.
He said that if NASA or the Navy functioned like the United States Senate, we would never get the rocket off the launchpad and in combat.
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