The Freedom To Vote Act Now Moves To The Next Stage After Senate Republicans Blocked Even Debating This Essential Legislation
Statement Of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
Today, Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block consideration of Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) compromise voting rights bill, the Freedom to Vote Act.
This battle, however, is by no means over.
The Act would protect the sacred right to vote for all eligible Americans by overriding the wave of state voter suppression laws that have been enacted this year around the country. The Act would also counter the state laws enacted this year to give highly partisan election officials the power to rig the outcome of federal elections in their states.
Despite Senator Manchin’s serious efforts to negotiate with Senate Republicans, every Republican Senator voted to deny the Senate even the ability to debate the Manchin compromise bill on the Senate floor.
As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted: “If there is anything worthy of debate in this chamber, it should be protecting and strengthening our democracy. With everything we’re seeing at the state level the Senate must take action – and we must take action now.”
We have reached the stage in this battle when supporters of the Freedom to Vote Act must now find a way to bypass the filibuster rules and pass the legislation with the votes of the 50 Senators who support the legislation, along with, if necessary, the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie.
The filibuster rules have never been written in stone. They have been changed in the past and exceptions have been routinely made over the years to allow measures to pass the Senate by majority vote.
These revisions to the filibuster rules have occurred when changed circumstances require change. We are at one of those moments now with our democracy and the integrity of our elections at stake.
With today’s vote it is clear that only by devising a bypass of the filibuster rules for this legislation can the Senate pass the Freedom to Vote Act.
Senator Manchin, who developed the Freedom to Vote Act, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who cosponsored the predecessor voting rights legislation in this Congress, have been the two Democratic holdouts, to date, on finding a way to bypass the filibuster rules and pass the legislation by majority vote.
As Senator Manchin has said, however, “inaction is not an option” when it comes to passing voting rights legislation.
In the coming weeks, Senators Manchin and Sinema will face a decision of enormous consequence to our nation. They should choose to be on the right side of history and support passing the Freedom to Vote Act by a majority vote in the Senate.
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