![](https://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/daacd78/2147483647/thumbnail/970x647/quality/85/?url=http://media.beam.usnews.com/79/03/dcdede9349bda69c5faf310bd5d3/gettyimages-1237705833.jpg)
The Senate started debating Democrats’ voting rights legislation on Tuesday, gearing up for a long-awaited procedural vote on the measure as well as a rules change to the filibuster that’ll culminate as early as Wednesday.
But Democrats’ efforts are still expected to hit a wall this week. Republicans are once again planning to block the election reforms bills. And once that happens, Democrats are expected to face some internal resistance to their latest plan to circumvent the 60-vote requirement with their version of a “talking filibuster.”
A pair of bills, which are now combined into one measure, briefly came before the Senate several times over the past year, but this is the first time senators can debate them due to a procedural shortcut Democrats used to avoid the 60-vote threshold. But once the debate period elapses, they’ll still need to overcome a filibuster to advance the bill – an obstacle that is all but certainly insurmountable because they don’t have any GOP support.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York opened the Senate on Tuesday afternoon with a series of complicated procedures to set up consideration and a procedural vote – known as cloture – to end debate on the bill. The cloture vote and the rules debate could happen either on Wednesday or Thursday.
“Today, we have just taken the first steps that will put everyone on the record,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “Win, lose or draw, members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights,” he added.
Lawmakers spent Tuesday debating the substance of the bills, the history of the filibuster and Senate rules and engaged in some polite back and forth between members on the evolving stances over changing how the upper chamber operates. Regardless, Democrats are still expected to fall short of the 60 votes to advance their bill in a narrowly divided 50-50 Senate.
That failed motion will trigger a debate and vote on a rules change. Senate Democrats met Tuesday evening to discuss the path forward and see if they can agree to a rules reform by using the “nuclear option.” Rules changes need 67 votes – which the party doesn’t have – and going nuclear will allow them to do so with a simple majority. As of now, Democrats don’t have all 50 of their senators behind any option.
Cartoons on the Democratic Party
Democrats solidified their plans on Tuesday evening with a proposal to go back to a “talking filibuster,” which would require senators who object to legislation to be physically present and debate it. After a two-speech limit, the Senate would then be able to move to final passage and need a simple majority of 51 votes. Schumer said the talking filibuster would only apply to the voting rights bill.
“If Republicans block cloture on the legislation before us, I will put forward a proposal to change the rules to allow for a talking filibuster on this legislation as recommended by a number of our colleagues who’ve been working on this reform for a long time,” Schumer said at a press conference following the caucus meeting.
“Once members of the minority party have exhausted all of their speaking rights and defended their position on the Senate floor, debate will have run its course,” he added. “The Senate will move to vote on final passage at a majority threshold, which has always been the threshold for final passage. I hope every senator will embrace this practical reform.”
Any proposal that goes around the 60-vote threshold to cut off debate will struggle to gain enough traction since Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose weakening the filibuster and want to preserve it as a tool for whichever party occupies the minority.
Manchin has previously expressed openness to a talking filibuster but said Tuesday evening that he is opposed to the current plan proposed by leadership. Sinema has yet to say where she stands. Plus, both senators won’t join Democrats in using the nuclear option to force a rules change.
Without their support – and potentially the backing of other more conservative Democrats – a rules change will ultimately fail.
In challenging the filibuster, Democrats and activists point to its reliance in the 1960s to block civil rights and voting rights legislation, dubbing the procedural tactic a “Jim Crow relic.” They view current GOP efforts to block the creation of federal elections rules and a restoration of the Voting Rights Act as a way to again curb the access of Black voters and other voters of color to the ballot box.
Both parties, however, have used the procedural tactic to halt legislation over the years. And in the past decade, they have both weakened the filibuster, with Democrats first scrapping 60 votes for executive branch and judicial nominees and a few years later Republicans doing the same for the Supreme Court.
Republicans are vehemently pushing back against both the voting rights legislation and the push to change the way the Senate functions legislatively. GOP senators used their speeches during Tuesday’s debate to highlight past examples of Democrats using the filibuster to stop legislation, particularly during the Trump era. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky argued that it’s a “useful reminder of just how fake the hysteria has been.”
“We have inflation, a pandemic, rampant violent crime, a border crisis and possibly a war on the European continent. But rather than work on any of that, Senate Democrats want to mar their own legacies with a reckless procedural vote they know will fail,” McConnell said Tuesday. “A faction this desperate for unlimited short-term power is a faction that must be denied it.”
In the lead-up to this week’s action in the Senate, activists commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday by saying “there’s no celebration without legislation.” King’s family, including his son and granddaughter, joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, other lawmakers and activists to drum up support ahead of the votes.
At a press conference from Union Station in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King III and other advocates directly called out Manchin and Sinema for siding with the filibuster over voting bills they support. Manchin played a major role in rewriting the bill on federal election standards, which later became the Freedom to Vote Act.
“They think the real problem isn’t that our rights are being stolen, they think the real problem is a disease of division that can be cured with some optimism and conversation,” Martin Luther King III said. “But (my father) knew when someone was denying you of your fundamental rights, conversation and optimism won’t get you very far.”
“Don’t tell us what you believe in – show us with your votes. If you can deliver an infrastructure bill for bridges, you can deliver voting rights for Americans,” he added.
Democrats’ gambit on voting rights appears doomed unless they can find an agreed upon rules change to unlock the stalled legislation. The potential defeat on a top priority for President Joe Biden comes as his Build Back Better plan to boost the social safety net and climate policy remains stuck after Manchin and Sinema also couldn’t commit.
The White House said Tuesday Biden will remain engaged on the issue no matter what happens this week on voting reforms but didn’t offer a deep look at a Plan B.
“Right now, our focus is on the debate, on the vote that is going to be happening and on the fact that it will highlight very clearly for the American people who stands with them in protecting their voting rights and who stands against it,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.