The plan avoids filibuster issue.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York set out new details for how he would bring up voting rights legislation. He outlined how he would bring up the bill next week that combines election overhauls and voting rights legislation in a memo sent to his Senate party members.
He is planning to use Senate procedure to bypass a 60-vote requirement typically needed to start debate by considering the bill as a “message,” a loophole that lets them bypass how many times they need to break a filibuster.
The bill will still require 60 votes before it can ultimately pass, but Senator Schumer is hoping that using the alternate pathway will at least allow a debate on voting rights legislation.
“With this procedure, we will finally have an opportunity to debate voting rights legislation,” he wrote. Until now, each time Senator Schumer has tried to bring up either of the election bills, he has been blocked from offering debate opportunities by a cloture vote on the motion to proceed.
Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are against going nuclear on the filibuster in order to get to a vote, which means the bills will likely fail. It is uncertain how bypassing the filibuster will be received by those two senators.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the Senate majority leader as he seeks to allow debate on voting rights legislation.
- For each senator as they consider the voting bills which would federalize elections.
- For the president and his advisors as they propose legislation and produce executive orders.
Sources: Axios, The Hill
