Joe Biden To Back Changing Senate Rules As A Way To Move Voting Rights Legislation Forward

deadline.com:

Joe Biden will announce his support for changing Senate rules as a way to move voting rights legislation forward, although he’s not backing an elimination of the filibuster, according to multiple press reports.In a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, Biden plans to characterize the consideration of the legislation as a “turning point in this nation.”“Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?” Biden plans to say. “I know where I stand.

I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic.

And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?”What Biden is endorsing is a “carve out” of the filibuster rule that requires a 60-vote threshold for getting legislation to the floor of the Senate, making the case that the change is required given the importance of the legislation to preserving democracy.

Democrats have pushed for passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act as essential reforms, in part because of restrictions that Republican-led states have placed on voting since the 2020 presidential election.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set this coming Monday, Martin Luther King Day, Monday, as a deadline for voting on a rules change.Yet the latest push to pass the legislation faces big uncertainties.