(The Slice): The U.S. Senate is on recess as major legislation on voting awaits attention. Before leaving they cleared several judge appointments, but left come critical business unfinished on voting rights reform. The Senate still has not voted on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Civil Rights advocates and mainline Democrats are supportive of the bills.
The House passed both measures earlier this year. But then back in July the US Supreme Court ruled the state of Arizona did not violate Voting Right Act, all but voiding approval of the changes Democrats were to seek in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will try to remedy any future GOP blockades to moving the vote forward he said in a letter to his colleagues.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Schumer wrote that if Republicans continued to filibuster, the Senate would “consider changes to any rules which prevent us from debating and reaching final conclusion on important legislation.”
Some Republicans who were formerly against changes have come around and willing to vote on the legislation. It is the two lone Democrats that tend to vote independently, Senators Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin, that the Democratic wing is constantly worried about.
UPDATE JAN. 4, 2022
SCHUMER TARGET MLK DAY DEADLINE FOR POSSIBLE RULE CHANGE TO ADVANCE VOTING RIGHTS LEGISLATION
In a letter Monday to colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate “must evolve” and will “debate and consider” the rule changes by Jan. 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the Democrats seek to overcome Republican opposition to their elections law package.
Controversy over election results triggered to Jan. 6 insurrection. Republicans were in the process of contested the 2020 presidential election when stormed the Capitol.
“Let me be clear: January 6th was a symptom of a broader illness — an effort to delegitimize our election process,” Schumer wrote, “and the Senate must advance systemic democracy reforms to repair our republic or else the events of that day will not be an aberration — they will be the new norm.”
Voting rights advocates warn that Republican-led states are passing restrictive legislation and trying to install election officials loyal to the former President, Donald Trump, in ways that could subvert future elections.
The extent of the rule change is currently under consideration in the Senate.
(SOURCE: AP)
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