Sen. Chuck Schumer has clearly had enough of GOP voting rights obstruction, so he said Democrats will look at alternative paths to pass the bill alone.
Schumer said on the Senate floor after Republicans blocked debate on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act:
As I said a few weeks ago, I believe the Senate needs to be restored to its rightful status as the world’s greatest deliberative body.
It has earned that title precisely because, yes, debate is the central feature of this body
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But at the end of the day, so is governing. So is taking action, when needed, once the debate has run its due course.
This is an old, old fight in this chamber. Over 100 years ago, the great Senator of Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, said that “to vote without debating is perilous, but to debate and never vote is imbecile.”
To vote without debating is perilous, but to debate and never vote is imbecile.
We should heed those words today, and explore whatever paths we have to restore the Senate so it does what its framers intended: debate, deliberate, comprise, and vote.
We can’t be satisfied in this chamber with thinking that democracy will always win out in the end, if we aren’t willing to put in the work to defend it. It will require constant vigilance to keep democracy alive in the 21st century.
Just because Republicans will not join us doesn’t mean Democrats will stop fighting. This is too important. We will continue to fight for voting rights and find an alternative path forward, even if it means going at it alone, to defend the most fundamental liberty we have as citizens.
One of the advantages of not passing Build Back Better yet is that the Senate still could add The Freedom To Vote Act to the bill.
Leader Schumer has made it clear that he wants filibuster reform or a filibuster carve out for voting rights. He has spent months on a process to show Democratic Sens. Manchin and Sinema that under no circumstances are Republicans going to work with them on voting rights.
Democrats could try to add voting rights legislation to BBB, which is something that Speaker Pelosi has already signaled that House Democrats will support. They could try to use reconciliation, or Democrats could also put new filibuster rules in places which would make it much more difficult for Republicans to block legislation. Manchin has said that he is in favor of changing the filibuster rules.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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