Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ sweeping elections and ethics reform bill on Tuesday, renewing calls from progressives to nix the legislative filibuster.
In a 50-50 vote, the Senate failed to move forward on the legislation, a top priority for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The path forward is now murky at best on an issue that Democrats say they need to resolve before the 2022 midterms.
Following the vote, Schumer vowed that Democrats would explore “every last one of our options” and pledged that the issue would come up for debate again in the Senate.
“Democrats are going to keep going all summer, all fall, as long as it takes,” Schumer said. “This concerns the very core of our democracy. So we will not let it go. We will not let it die. This voter suppression cannot stand. And we are going to work tirelessly to see that it does not stand.”
Republicans, however, remain vehemently opposed, arguing that the bill — which Democrats designated S. 1 to signify its importance — would amount to nothing more than the federalization of the U.S. election system. That means that Democrats would need to change Senate rules in order to pass the legislation….
While Democrats were unable to move forward, Schumer did secure the vote of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the only Senate Democrat who did not co-sponsor the bill. The unified Democratic vote will both help the party’s political messaging that the GOP is stonewalling them and likely intensify progressives’ push to end the filibuster.