Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his support on Tuesday for a bill that would prevent Trump-style efforts to subvert a presidential election following the Capitol Hill riot.
The Republican lawmaker's support will bolster the legislation's chances of passage in his chamber and put him at sharp odds with former President Donald Trump. The Republican businessman has called on GOP senators to oppose the plan.
Preventing Trump-Style Efforts
McConnell said that the "chaos" of the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol building last year "certainly underscored the need for an update." He said he strongly supports the modest changes that his colleagues in the working group have proposed after months of discussions.
The senate minority leader noted that Congress' process for counting the presidential electors' votes was written 135 years ago. McConnell added that it was high time for an update, especially following the chaotic riot last year. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and the vast majority of House Republicans, last week, opposed their chamber's version of the bill. It would have amended the Electoral Count Act of 1887, as per CNN.
While the House bill has several similarities with the version of the Senate, including making sure that the vice president only has a ministerial role in overseeing a joint session of Congress approving state-certified electoral results, there are various details that are different.
Included in these is the number of lawmakers who would be needed to force the House and Senate to vote in an attempt to overturn a state's certified electoral results and the procedures for resolving election disputes in federal courts.
According to the Washington Post, Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Manchin III sponsored the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the United States continues to face the threat of the anti-democracy MAGA Republican movement.
Reforming the Electoral Count Act
Schumer argued that many GOP leaders pushed forward the agenda by either refusing to take a stand or actively stoking the flames of division in the country. He noted that reforming the Electoral Count Act should be the bare minimum needed that Congress takes.
The Senate Rules Committee later voted to advance the bill, with Schumer voting yes by proxy and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz being the lone no vote. Minutes after McConnell expressed his support of the bill, Cruz spoke and went against his party leader, criticizing the bill as "bad policy" and being "bad for democracy."
Cruz said that he understood why Democrats were supporting the bill but expressed his wonder about why Republicans were on board with it. Before Tuesday, the bill had already garnered strong bipartisan support, with 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans in the senate signing on to co-sponsor it.
The House of Representatives last week voted on a separate bill that was put forward by Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has similar goals to the recent legislation. However, House Republican leadership told their members to oppose the bill, ultimately resulting in only nine GOP members, all of whom are leaving Congress in January, voting in support of the bill, Insider reported.
