If Republicans continue to filibuster voting rights legislation, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) informed colleagues Monday that the chamber will vote on amending Senate rules before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The announcement of the January 17 deadline was Schumer's clearest support yet of trying to push through legislation that has been stalled in the Senate due to Senate rules needing a 60-vote barrier.
Schumer vows to modify doomed Senate filibuster rule
Senators Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) have shown skepticism or resistance to modifying Senate rules in the way that would be required to carry voting rights issues past the finish line, so Schumer's plan will need their support.
Because Republicans are united in their opposition to Democrats' objectives, the only option to pass legislation is to change Senate filibuster procedures. That would need the support of all 50 Democrats for both the rule change and the underlying legislation, The Washington Post reported.
Schumer claimed in his letter that the subject of voting rights is one occasion where modifying Senate rules is justified. Republicans chastised Schumer for threatening to modify the rules. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who voted in favor of prior filibuster rule changes pushed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Schumer's "disastrous plan" must be halted.
Schumer also stated in his letter that Democrats would utilize this week's anniversary of the January 6 uprising to make a case for voting rights protection. Former President Donald Trump, as well as Republicans who have embraced and pushed the widely disproved argument that the 2020 presidential election is rigged, were chastised by Schumer.
Senate Democrats are under growing pressure
Schumer's letter focused almost completely on election reform, which has the backing of all 50 Senate Democrats but has been filibustered several times by Republicans. Schumer assured his caucus in December that despite Manchin's opposition to the newest plan, he would bring Biden's social and climate-focused legislation to the Senate floor this year.
Now that Democrats' enlarged Child Tax Credit has expired, and Americans will begin voting in primary elections in a matter of weeks, Senate Democrats are under growing pressure to get the party's stalled agenda on voting and extending the social safety net ahead. Democrats stressed that voting rights would not come at the price of education, environment, health care, child care, or other climate-related legislation.
Democrats have lambasted Republican-led states for tightening early voting and mail-in voting regulations, claiming that they are intended to disenfranchise minority votes, as per POLITICO. The modifications, according to Republicans, are critical safeguards to prevent voting fraud.
"The Senate must adapt and develop, as it has many times before," Schumer said, quoting one of his predecessors as majority leader, West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd: "Congress is not obligated to be shackled by the dead hand of the past."
Per NY Post, the majority leader said, "We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us."
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