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Sinema Sinks Voting Bill Before Biden’s Capitol Visit

A Voting Rights Showdown in the Senate Is Taking Shape After House Bill Passes

President Joe Biden’s long-shot bid to get the Senate to change its rules to pass voting rights legislation is headed to almost certain failure after Democrat Kyrsten Sinema said Thursday she continues to oppose the effort. 

Just before Biden arrived at the Capitol to huddle with all 50 Senate Democrats, the Arizona senator said on the Senate floor that the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance, protects the country “from wild reversals on federal policy” when control of Congress changes hands. 

At issue is the fate of two Democrat-drafted voting rights measures that were combined into a single bill passed by the House earlier Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set up the legislation as a test of the Senate rules that give the minority party broad power over what bills can get a vote.

“While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said. “The debate over the 60-vote threshold shines a light on our broader challenges.”

The stakes for Biden and congressional Democrats are high, with civil rights groups and other progressives increasingly restive over the legislation, which has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate using the chamber’s filibuster rule. 

Biden, who progressives have slammed for not doing enough on the issue, has been attempting to convince Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia to go along with altering the filibuster to get the legislation passed. 

House progressives said the legislation, a response to new voting restrictions in many states, would keep pressure on the Senate to find a way forward on a rules change and force Republican senators to explain their opposition.

“If we have to go back to people and try to explain why we don’t have voting rights, it’s important they hear from Republicans themselves why they are blocking this critical legislation,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, said Thursday.

Republicans say Democrats are seeking the legislation because it gives them advantages in future elections, including this year’s midterm elections. 

Sinema’s speech “should put kind of the nail in the coffin of the idea that somehow they might eventually win,” Republican Senator John Thune told reporters. “So the question is when they want to lose and is losing later in the weekend or on Monday, optically advantageous for them politically, because I think right now, that’s what it’s all about.”

Minutes after Sinema’s speech, Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week and was isolating at home, underscoring the tenuous position Democrats are in as they try to get 50 votes to change Senate rules. 

The legislative package, approved by the House on a 220-203 vote, includes the Freedom to Vote Act, a broad bill backed by every Senate Democrat and designed to expand ballot access, and a second measure that restores the Justice Department’s ability to require some states to get pre-clearance for changes to their voting laws. Senate Republicans blocked both bills last year. 

The House vote, part of a procedural gambit, will allow Schumer to start debate without the threat of a GOP filibuster, although Republicans can still block because it still will need 60 votes in the evenly divided Senate for move to the floor for a vote on final passage. 

Both Manchin and Sinema have been meeting with other Democratic senators who want to change Senate filibuster rules so that the voting rights legislation could clear the chamber on a simple majority vote or establish a “talking filibuster” where senators must be present to continue debate. 

Manchin and Sinema aren’t alone in their wariness of significantly changing the filibuster rules. Others, including Jon Tester of Montana, say they don’t want to have a one-time “carve out” to end the filibuster simply to pass the voting rights legislation.

Schumer has vowed to have a Senate floor showdown on the voting rights measures by Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Now that the House has acted, he could bring it up today or tomorrow and avoid any filibuster to start debate. After a day of debate, he could file a motion to close off debate that could get voted on over the weekend.

Republicans remain united against the legislation, so it is almost certain to be blocked. After that point, Schumer will likely propose some change to Senate filibuster rules. But unless both Manchin and Sinema reverse course the effort would fail.

The Freedom to Vote Act, backed by all Senate Democrats, would create an automatic voter registration system through each state’s motor vehicle agency, make Election Day a public holiday and provide voters with at least 15 days of early voting for federal elections. It also is designed to curtail partisan “gerrymandering” of congressional districts and would put in place new campaign finance disclosure requirements that include mandating Super-PACs and other outside groups report their donors.

The second legislation, restoring Justice Department powers that were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, is called the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

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