Washington – President Biden signaled on Thursday that he would be willing to consider supporting the removal of the obstruction if Senate Republicans used it to prevent Democratic legislative priorities from receiving a full vote in the Senate floor. He also advocated the return of a “talking” obstructionist, which would require a senator to speak for a long period of time to block a bill.
Most Senate legislation requires 60 votes to overcome an obstruction. Democrats have a narrow majority of 50 seats, and most Democratic legislation is unlikely to win the support of 10 Republicans. Obstruction is the biggest obstacle for Democrats to achieve most of their legislative priorities.
In his first press conference as president, Biden said the obstruction was “being abused in a gigantic way”. He added that a talking obstruction would force senators “to stay there and talk and talk and talk and talk until you fall,” and then the Senate could go ahead with a vote later.
“I strongly support moving in that direction,” said Biden. This would not solve the problem of a bill that needs 60 votes to pass, and he avoided the question of whether he believed 60 votes or 51 votes would be needed to break an obstruction.
He also called himself a “practical guy” and suggested that he would be willing to go further in the obstruction if it seemed clear that Democratic priorities, such as voting rights projects, would not receive votes from the floor.
“If necessary, if there is complete blockage and chaos as a result of the obstruction, we will have to go beyond what I am talking about,” said Biden.
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Democrats were able to approve their recent $ 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan using a process known as reconciliation, which allows certain projects to be approved by a simple majority. But reconciliation cannot be used for most types of legislation, creating an eventual confrontation in the Senate over immigration, voting rights and more.
Earlier on Thursday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he would bring a huge right to vote and a government reform bill to the Senate floor for voting, although it will almost certainly fail due to Republican opposition.
Republican Party senators claim that S. 1, known as the By the People’s Law, is a takeover by Democrats, while Democrats insist they are trying to protect the right to vote while several states introduce legislation that could make voting difficult.
“Across the country, the Republican Party seems to believe that the best strategy for winning the elections is not to win more voters, but to try to prevent the other side from voting,” Schumer said in a Senate speech on Thursday. “This is not America. This is not democracy. And this Senate is going to take measures to protect the voting rights of tens of millions of Americans. The Senate is going to vote on the People’s Law.”
The bill would establish automatic, same-day and online electoral registration across the country. It includes some measures that would require states to review their registration systems. This would expand absentee voting, limit states’ ability to remove people from the electoral roll, increase federal funds for electoral security, and reform the redistricting process.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell criticized S. 1 in a speech to the Senate plenary moments after Schumer spoke, calling Democratic arguments that it would protect voting rights “a total nonsense.”
“This goal is to allow Washington Democrats to manipulate the rules of democracy from the top down to hide this party project behind the smokescreen of voting rights,” said McConnell.
The People’s Act may not even receive the support of all Democrats, as Senator Joe Manchin expressed skepticism about the bill on Wednesday. He is currently the only Democrat in the Senate who is not a co-sponsor of the bill. Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, is also vehemently opposed to removing the obstruction.
“I think we should all be able to unite around voting rights, but that should be limited to voting rights,” Manchin told reporters on Wednesday, arguing that S. 1 as it is currently written “can Divide us even more on a party basis. “But if the project were limited to voting rights, it would remove provisions related to campaign financing and ethical reform, which are essential priorities for progressives.
In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, Manchin expressed concern about S. 1, and said he would support bipartisan legislation on the right to vote.
“As the Senate prepares to pass the People’s Law, we must work towards a bipartisan solution that protects everyone’s voting rights, secures our elections from foreign interference and increases transparency in our campaign finance laws. Legislation of this magnitude on a partisan basis may obtain short-term benefits, but it will inevitably only increase the distrust that millions of Americans harbor against the US government, “said Manchin.
His statement on Thursday further indicates that he is unwilling to create an exception to the obstruction rule specifically for voting rights, as suggested by some Democrats. Manchin said last week that creating such a separation would be “like being a little pregnant”, meaning that it is impossible to change the obstruction only partially.
Some senators changed their mind about the obstruction when it became clear that Republicans will block many Democratic-backed projects. Senator Angus King, an independent who joins the Democrats, wrote in an article in the Washington Post on Wednesday that “supporting the continuation of the rule becomes increasingly difficult to justify” if the minority uses obstruction as an obstruction tool .
“Total opposition to reasonable protections for voting rights cannot be activated by the obstructionist; if forced to choose between a Senate rule and democracy itself, I know where I will fall,” wrote King. He quoted Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, who said in a speech to the Senate plenary recently that “it is a contradiction to say that we must protect minority rights in the Senate, while we refuse to protect minority rights in society.”
Senator Kyrsten Sinema also said she is against removing the rule. Unless she and Manchin change their minds, most of the progressive legislation proposed by Democrats will remain in limbo.
In a letter to fellow Democrats on Thursday, Schumer also said that the Senate Judiciary Committee would soon adopt the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore the provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act overturned by the Supreme Court. Like S. 1, it is unlikely to receive the necessary support from 60 senators.
Schumer added that the Senate will pass the Equality Act, which would enshrine legal protections for LGBTQ Americans, and the hate crime legislation COVID-19 proposed by Senator Mazie Hirono with the aim of protecting Asian Americans from violence and discrimination.
He also said the Senate will pass gun control legislation and climate change-related bills, which are unlikely to win Republican support.
“The challenges that our country still faces are immense and there is no reason why both sides cannot work together on issues that will affect our country and the future of our children,” Schumer said in his Senate plenary address. “We will not agree on everything, but we must agree that inaction is unacceptable. The Senate must help the country finish its work against COVID, while continuing to build a more egalitarian economy and a more just society.”