Republicans block Democrats' sweeping voting rights bill

The so called For the People Act was a test vote for Democrats in their fight to pass federal voting reform legislation. With the defeat of that legislation in the Senate, they're now looking to push for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters today that she and President Biden intend to continue to push for voting reform, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is likely to come to the Senate floor later this year.

Nearly two dozen states across the country have enacted laws that make it harder to vote, if passed, the act could reverse some of the restrictions passed by states.

This proposal, named after late Georgia Democratic congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis aims to restore enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act. It first became law in 1965, shortly after a bloody law enforcement attack on peaceful voting rights activists on a bridge in Selma, Alabama, shocked and shamed the nation into action.

The Voting Rights Act's requirements — that nine states and parts of others with a history of racial discrimination win federal approval, or "pre-clearance" before changing their election procedures — were nullified by the Supreme Court in its 2013 Shelby County v Holder decision. (The court didn't strike down pre-clearance but said the law relied on an old formula that needed updating. Congress hasn't agreed on a new formula in the intervening years.)

Soon after the ruling, states began erecting new barriers to voting, ranging from voter ID laws to signature-matching requirements. And those efforts ramped up this year with many Republican-controlled states proposing a raft of new voting restrictions, spurred on by former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

A recent version of the new John Lewis Act would extend pre-clearance to states that have incurred multiple voting rights violations in the last 25 years — an attempt to get around the Supreme Court majority's concern in Shelby that states were being punished for decades-old misdeeds, rather than current discriminatory practices.

Although a version of the Voting Rights Act rewrite passed the House in an earlier Congress, the John Lewis Act is not actually a bill right now. Committee hearings to fine-tune its provisions are planned as a precursor to its reintroduction in the House.

Read more about it here.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic Majority Whip, said on CNN that he was "disappointed but not surprised" that Republicans voted to block the sweeping voting rights bill today.

"I thought perhaps some of the Republicans would step up and say that this national strategy of changing state laws and making it more difficult was just wrong, but they didn't. They stood together," he said.

Durbin went on to criticize Republicans as "the party that is supporting voter suppression."

Vice President Kamala Harris' told reporters that "the fight is not over" after Republicans unanimously blocked the Democrats' sweeping election and voting reform bill.

Harris expressed that she and President Biden intend to continue to push for voting reform, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is likely to come to the Senate floor later this year.

This what Harris told reporters after leaving the Senate floor where she presided over the vote:

Watch Harris' remarks:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor moments after Republicans voted in unison to not open debate on the Democrats' signature voting rights and election bill, saying saying GOP opposition was "indefensible" and an "enduring disgrace."

"Once again, Senate Republicans have signed their names in the ledger of history alongside Donald Trump, the big lie, and voter suppression," he said.

Earlier in his remarks Schumer also suggested his Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was deploying the same tactics used by Southern senators to oppose efforts surrounding the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"The Republican leader uses the language and the logic of the southern senators in the sixties who defended states rights and it is an indefensible position for any senator, any senator, let alone for the minority leader to hold," he said.

"That is both ridiculous and awful," he added of Republicans' opposition to the bill.

Schumer then pledged to continue the fight.

"Republican senators may have prevented us from having a debate on voting rights today but I want to be very clear about one thing, the fight to protect voting rights is not over, by no means," he said. "In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun not the finish line."

Senate Democrats suffered a loss on Tuesday when Republican opposition sunk their signature voting and election bill during a key test vote, underscoring the limits of the party's power with the narrowest possible Senate majority.

A procedural vote to open debate on the legislation was just defeated by a tally of 50-50, falling short of the 60 votes needed to succeed.

Democrats were united in favor of the vote after securing support from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, but Republicans were united against it, causing the measure to fail to advance.

Senate Democrats have pitched the legislation a necessary counter to state-level efforts to restrict voting access, but Republicans have decried it as a partisan power grab and a federal overreach into state voting and election systems.

Read more about today's vote here.

Ahead of the procedural vote to open debate on the Democrats' election bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Republicans over the expected failure of the legislation and laid the blame on former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

“Do not let this man lead you around by the nose and do permanent damage to our democracy,” he continued, “At least have the decency and honor to let this chamber debate."

Schumer also spoke on the history of voting rights in America, noting that many of the Democrats in the chamber would not have been allowed to vote when the nation was first founded.

“The truth is, many of us, particularly on our side of the aisle, would not have been able to vote,” he said. “But ever since the early days of the Republic, Americans launched mighty movements, fought a bloody civil war, and yes, passed federal election laws to expand the franchise until there were no more boundaries," he said.

“Are we going to backslide, here in the 21st century?” he asked

The Senate is voting now on a procedural motion on whether to begin debate on the Democrats' signature voting and election bill known as the For the People Act.

The Senate is taking up an amended version of the legislation that passed the House in March.

Democrats are expected to put a united front after securing support from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, but the party is still on track to suffer a stinging defeat with Republican opposition expected to sink the bill. It would need 60 votes to succeed, a threshold it is not expected to meet.

Democratic senators have pitched the legislation a necessary counter to state-level efforts to restrict voting access, but Republicans have united against it, decrying it as a partisan power grab and a federal overreach into state voting and election systems.

Here are some key things the bill would do:

The legislative package that passed the House also calls for far-reaching ethics and government changes that would impact Congress, the president and even the Supreme Court.

It would institute an ethics code for the US Supreme Court that would apply to justices and would implement measures intended to prevent presidential conflicts of interest.

It would stop lawmakers from using taxpayer money to reach settlements in employment discrimination cases stemming from their own actions.

Some more background: Failure of the bill to move forward will force Democrats to confront the question of what else they can do to press the issue and will likely trigger a fresh outpouring of calls from progressives to eliminate the legislative filibuster, which requires most bills to get the votes of at least 10 Republicans given the current Senate makeup. But the votes are not there to eliminate the filibuster with Manchin and several other moderate Democrats opposed.

Read more about the bill and today's vote here.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, took to the Senate floor prior to the vote on whether to open debate on so-called For the People Act, saying the legislation is bipartisan everywhere in the US, except the Senate, where all 50 Republicans are expected to vote block the legislation.

The bill was also passed in the House without Republican support.

"While they may claim, my friends on the other side of the aisle, that this isn't popular, it is just not true," Klobuchar said. "They claim it is not bipartisan, it is just not true."

Moments after Klobuchar concluded, the Senate began voting on a procedural motion on whether to begin debate on the Democrats' signature voting and election bill known as the For the People Act.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, another key GOP swing vote, outlined her opposition to the For the People Act in Senate floor remarks ahead of a key test vote later today where the bill is expected to be defeated due to GOP opposition.

“This is a bill that was introduced to enhance partisan messaging, not to enhance participation in our elections, as the over-the-top rhetoric about this bill highlights,” she said earlier in her remarks.

Read more about today's Senate vote here.