 | | Antonio de Luca/The New York Times |
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When they passed a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill this month, Democrats in Congress sped past their Republican opposition, using the budgetary reconciliation process to present a case study of what happens when they don't bend over backward for G.O.P. buy-in. |
Today, as they began hearings on a major piece of voting rights legislation, Democrats were making a different calculation. The bill isn't eligible for reconciliation and is almost certain to meet gridlock in the Senate, given the threat of a filibuster from Republicans. |
Few issues, if any, divide the country along partisan lines more than voting rights. The bill being debated, the For the People Act, passed the House on party lines with no Republicans voting for it. Knowing that getting 10 Republicans to join Democrats in overriding a filibuster is virtually impossible, Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, is putting Democrats on a collision course with the existential debate over the filibuster. |
But at the hearing today, he relished the opportunity to drive home the divide between Democrats and Republicans on this issue. "Today, in the 21st century, there is a concerted, nationwide effort to limit the rights of citizens to vote and to truly have a voice in their own government," Schumer said, later chanting, "Shame! Shame!" at Republican lawmakers. |
There's a poetic irony and also a perfect logic to the fact that a debate over the filibuster would come to a head over voting rights legislation. Not only because filibuster reform involves the Senate altering its own voting rules, but also because the most high-profile uses of the filibuster throughout history have often been in order to block civil rights. |
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, in a recent speech on the Senate floor, succinctly tied the For the People Act to the filibuster debate. "It is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in society," he said. |
Pressure has been growing among Democratic insiders this week for changes to the filibuster. Senators have begun broadcasting their support for ending the practice, and a report in Axios published today quoted people close to President Biden saying he was ready to roll back the maneuver, although the White House has been publicly tight-lipped on the issue. |
Just as Democratic senators were strident in their calls for federal voting rights laws today, Republicans were combative in their arguments against the bill. Some expressed outrage over the legislation's proposal to end the mandatory 3-3 partisan split on the Federal Election Commission, a move that Democrats have said was necessary to promote reform. |
"This bill is designed to corrupt the election process permanently, and it is a brazen and shameless power grab by Democrats," Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said. |
Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, said that states simply "are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever." |
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, argued that the bill was trying to fix a voting system that didn't need fixing, a position that seemed to go against prominent Republican narratives that the 2020 election was supposedly tainted by voter fraud. |
But Democrats see an opportunity to press their case for filibuster reform with the For the People Act, a sweeping bill that would establish core national voting rights standards and create independent, nonpartisan commissions to handle the congressional redistricting process. |
State-level Republican lawmakers have proposed hundreds of bills this year that would tamp down voting rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, and the G.O.P. will control the redistricting process next year in many key swing states. Democrats in Congress are looking at this bill as an increasingly urgent bulwark against voting restrictions and gerrymandering that could perpetuate targeted disenfranchisement, tilting the balance of political power for years to come. |
Of course, it's not yet certain that Senate Democrats will even unify in support of the bill. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who votes against his party with some regularity, is the lone Democrat who didn't sponsor it, and he has yet to signal unequivocal support. If he does get behind it, he would have to work to roll back the filibuster as well (something that he and at least one other Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, haven't yet gotten behind) in order to make that support mean anything. |
The White House agrees to focus on Asian-American representation after Democrats threaten nominees. |
By Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane |
The White House said on Tuesday that it would appoint a senior official to focus on Asian-American priorities after the Senate's two Asian-American Democrats called on President Biden to address what they said was an unacceptable lack of representation at the highest levels of his administration. |
In a late-night statement, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Biden would name "a senior-level Asian-American Pacific Islander liaison who will ensure the community's voice is further represented and heard." |
"The president has made it clear that his administration will reflect the diversity of the country," Psaki said. "That has always been, and remains, our goal." |
The announcement came hours after Senators Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii promised to withhold their votes on some nominees until Biden engaged more actively on the issue amid a rising tide of racism toward Asian-Americans during the pandemic, culminating in last week's deadly shootings in the Atlanta area. |
With the Senate divided evenly between the two parties, the move temporarily threatened to derail the president's hopes of confirming several executive branch officials, including the Pentagon's No. 3. Apparently, it also created considerable pressure to find a solution to a diversity problem the senators said they had been quietly raising for months. |
Open disputes between Biden and congressional Democrats have been relatively rare in his first months in office, and the senators' ultimatum was an unusual public disagreement within a party in uniform control of Washington. But by late Tuesday, Duckworth and Hirono had dropped their threats and appeared satisfied by the administration's response. |
Ben Garmisa, a spokesman for Duckworth, said in a statement that the senator appreciated the White House's "assurances that it will do much more to elevate A.A.P.I. voices and perspectives at the highest levels of government," referring to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. He added that the White House had given assurances that its new appointee would work both to confirm more Asian-American and Pacific Islander nominees and to advance legislation that was "relevant and important to the community." |
"Accordingly, she will not stand in the way of President Biden's qualified nominees — which will include more A.A.P.I. leaders," Garmisa said of Duckworth. |
Citing her own conversation with the White House, Hirono said on Twitter that she would also "continue voting to confirm the historic and highly qualified nominees President Biden has appointed to serve in his administration." |
This piece comes from our live briefing, where you can find more updates on the news in Washington today. |
Still Processing: The N-word |
On the season premiere of their podcast, the co-hosts and culture writers Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris confront the most offensive word in the English language — a weapon of hate and a badge of belonging that's everywhere and can't be ignored. You can listen here, and tune in every Thursday for new episodes. |
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