On Wednesday, the Voting Rights Bill was filibustered in the US Senate after a desperate attempt to change the Senate Rule 22 requiring 60 to vote in favor of ending debate. The Democrat’s attempt to change Rule 22 came with major Republican pushback and the inability to keep Senate Democrats together. Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) voted against the rule change. The blocked bill and failure to abolish the filibuster are huge hits for the Biden presidency during an already struggling presidency.
Despite Democrats knowing their efforts to pass this new legislation and to end the filibuster were never going to succeed with Machin and Sinema threatening to vote against ending the filibuster, Senate Democrats pushed the legislation forward. The legislation combined the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act into one 735 page behemoth of a bill aptly named the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.” The bill included a complete overhaul of the election process. It required that all states had an early voting window of at least 15 days, and made absentee mail-in ballots available to all. Strict voter ID laws would be hit. The bill required that if a state had some sort of voter identification law, they must accept any document that has a government-issued name dated within the past six months. The bill would reestablish ‘preclearance’ which would require that any change to state election laws must get approval from the Department of Justice or D.C federal district court. Finally, the bill outlaws partisan gerrymandering. To get around the Rucho v. Common Cause verdict, Congress would give the power to police these redrawing to the federal courts.
In the Senate, under Senate Rule 22, in order for a vote to be held on a bill (sometimes referred to as moving the question), you must end debate on the floor. To close debate, senators can either request ‘unanimous consent’ or motion for cloture. According to Senate Rule 22, a supermajority of the senate must agree to the motion of cloture, meaning 60 senators must all agree to close debate and move the question. If the Senate doesn’t agree to the motion, the motion fails and the legislation in question is filibustered. Senate Democrats attempted to bypass the filibuster by ‘nuking’ the filibuster. The Senate can change the interpretation of Senate Rule 22 by the President’s (President of the Senate, not the US President) decision, or by appealing a decision of the President. If done successfully, the interpretation of Senate Rule 22 would be changed, setting a new precedent in the Senate and ending the filibuster. However, in order to successfully appeal a decision, a majority of the Senate must agree. If all Senate Democrats would have agreed to appeal the decision of the President, they would have ended the filibuster, with Kamala Harris making the tie-breaking decision. However, on Wednesday, Machin and Sinema, along with all 50 Republican Senators voted against the appeal, and the attempt to end the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation failed.
The failure to end the filibuster and pass the voting rights legislation marks two major blows to the Biden administration. President Joe Biden promised during his campaign to enact new voter protections laws. The filibuster in the Senate sets up more roadblocks for Biden. Now the Biden administration and Senate democrats must work together with Senate Republicans to pass big packages Biden promised. Even after being in office for one year, Biden’s path forward looks very rocky.
Sources
What Democrats put in their voting rights megabill — and what got left out – POLITICO
What is the Senate filibuster, and what would it take to eliminate it?