Republicans block 'rotten' election reform bill in Senate as VP Harris presides over debate
By: Marisa Schultz (Fox News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Election reform and DC statehood bills unlikely to pass Senate filibuster
Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram discusses the latest from Capitol Hill on 'America Reports'
Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked sweeping legislation on election and campaign finance reforms that Democrats said is crucial is ensuring voting rights and saving democracy but Republican blasted as a partisan federal takeover of elections.
The "For the People Act" needed 60 votes to clear a procedural vote in the Senate Tuesday, but Republicans filibustered and killed the legislation from advancing to debate. No Republicans joined with the 50 Democrats on the motion to proceed.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans won't stand for Democrats' attempt to impose new voting standards on states that would "rig" elections in their favor. He called the substance of the nearly 900-page bill "rotten" to its core.
Republicans took issue with imposing federal standards on state elections that they said would weaken state ID requirements. They also oppose starting a new public financing system for congressional elections and politicizing the Federal Elections Commission that enforces campaign finance laws.
Even GOP moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she couldn't support the "partisan federal takeover of the election system." In a floor speech, she said she'd back elements of the bill and will co-sponsor the separate John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but can't back Democrats' "one-size-fits-all" reforms.
Democrats, with the White House on their side, framed the legislation as an urgent priority to save democracy in the face of GOP efforts in state legislatures around the country to pass "voter suppression laws" in the wake of former President Trump's 2020 election loss and unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
"Democracy is in peril, here, in America," President Biden's White House said in a statement Tuesday supporting the bill. "The right to vote - a sacred right in this country - is under assault with an intensity and an aggressiveness we have not seen in a long time."
Voting rights have been such a concern for the White House that Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the debate on the Senate floor Tuesday evening.
Vice President Kamala Harris presides over the Senate Tuesday June 22 as Republicans blocked Democrats' signature voting reform legislation. (CSPAN)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. accused the GOP of being "afraid" to debate the merits of voting rights because they'd be forced to defend their efforts to disenfranchise voters.
"Republicans across the country are deliberately targeting all the ways that younger, poorer, nonwhite and typically Democratic voters access the ballot," Schumer said Tuesday. "Republicans claim they're making it easier to vote and harder to cheat in an election; but in reality, they are making it harder to vote and easier to cheat an election."
The "For the People Act" was numbered H.R. 1 and S.1 in the House and Senate to signify it was the top priority of Democratic leadership. The bill already passed the House with no GOP support.
The voting rights legislation, if enacted, would take aim at big-dollar donors and dark money in politics by requiring additional disclosure of campaign donors and disclaimers on political advertising. Presidential candidates would also be required to release their tax returns.
It would set up a new 6-1 public matching financing system for congressional elections to encourage more grassroots donations and require states to adopt independent redistricting commissions to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
And the legislation would set basic standards for states to run elections, such as mandating at least 15 days of early voting, setting up automatic voter registration, and permitting the use of student IDs or sworn written statements in states that have voter identification requirements.
While all 50 Democrats were united in moving to debate the bill, with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., striking a last-minute deal with Schumer, Democrats are deeply divided on what to do next.
A top Democratic political adviser criticized his own party for wasting time on the S.1 legislation that won't pass. Dmitri Mehlhorn, a key confidant to Democratic funder Reid Hoffman, argued the legislative push was setting the party up for failure and "dragging me and my country off a cliff," according to a report in POLITICO.
Progressives are demanding that Senate Democrats get rid of the legislative filibuster so they can pass the sweeping election reforms, D.C. statehood bill, gun control and police reform bills without any GOP support.
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For now we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The Republic has been saved.
So, the world's greatest deliberative body voted against deliberating. I suppose there is some lost irony in that.
I don't think they have actually debated in a while.
Of course Green Eggs and Ham will remain a highlight.
That one was a 'standout' ... my sympathies to the senate recorder.
It is extremely likely that this will blow up in the Republicans faces. People can still vote, even if it will be difficult in some cases, and the proper get out the vote drive will energize people to do just that. I dont see this working to the Republicans advantage among fence sitters, people tend to not approve of voter suppression even if it is not happening to them personally.
This can turn out to have been a good day for the Democrats if they use it right.
The dems are going to be too busy explaining why the election audits dont add up.
The "Rotten Republicans" obnoxious obstructionism is not playing well in Peoria. Trumpian toxicity was soundly defeated by voters last November. The way things are going the midterms will be a bloodbath...
FOR THE GOP!
Could one ask just what is 'so rotten' about this Election Reform Bill?
Or, is the ( unmasking) of the so called dark money the real anathema for the GOP? Is the origins of that money the hilt of the sword that strikes so much fear in the GOP? And if it not this, then what is it?
Progressives are demanding that Senate Democrats get rid of the legislative filibuster so they can pass the sweeping election reforms, D.C. statehood bill, gun control and police reform bills without any GOP support.
Not gonna happen! That's not democracy
Is it democracy to block everything without debate? The senate has become nothing more than an irresistible force confronting an immovable object with the country being in the unfortunate middle.
And McConnell seems to be proud of the kill every bill approach.
He likes the idea that he is more powerful than the President, and can rule America however he likes. But, he will one day find out that he is not as powerful as he thinks he is. And his ass will see the door to the Senate closed to him for good.
Funny the Democrats never felt that way when Trump was in charge; and they were the ones that obstructed everything.
Oh, the sheer and utter hypocrisy.
Of course as soon as the Dems are out of power they will demand the filibuster be put back in place. Just like they did after they instituted the nuclear option.
That is my fear, that the Dems would use the nuclear option to end the filibuster and should they lose the Senate in 22 their last act before they end their session would be to use the nuclear option to put it back in place. And following that, the next Senate would immediately use the same option to end the filibuster so the new party in power could run as they see fit, etc. Thus ending the greatest deliberative body in the world.
Once mob rule takes over we will have definitely lost our democracy.
The party of no just said no. In other news, dog bites man.
Having lost the House, Senate and Presidency in two years the gop is doubling down against voters.
Which is why voters are so motivated to further punish the gop in Congress in the 2022 midterm...
The gop in Congress is less popular than diarrhea!