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Democrats' week of reckoning in Congress: Schumer wants to pass voting rights legislation and get Joe Manchin to support killing the filibuster as lawmakers return to govern amid election year battle

  Congress returns to work on Monday for a week of reckoning as   Senate   Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seeks to kill the filibuster in ord...

 Congress returns to work on Monday for a week of reckoning as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seeks to kill the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation. 

This week marks the first time since mid-December the House and Senate are both in session at the same time. Lawmakers return to a packed to-do list, including funding the federal government.

But their return to govern comes amid an increase in COVID cases on Capitol Hill and heightened partisan rhetoric ahead of this year's midterm election, where Republicans are looking to win back control of Congress. 

The clock is ticking to pass President Joe Biden's legislative agenda before lawmakers switch to fulltime campaign mode. 

Schumer has vowed to hold pass voting rights legislation by January 17th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - making this a critical week for Democrats. 

But his plan to go 'nuclear'  and change the Senate rules to allow the legislation to proceed with a simple majority vote faces opposition from two of his own: Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

Congress returns to work on Monday for a week of reckoning as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seeks to kill the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation

Congress returns to work on Monday for a week of reckoning as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seeks to kill the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation

Senator Joe Manchin
Senator Kyrsten Sinema

Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema oppose changing Senate rules to end the filibuster and Schumer needs their votes to make it happen


Republicans are solidly opposed to the voting rights legislation, calling it an attempt to federalize elections they argue should be run by states. 

Thay have said they will filibuster any attempt to pass federal legislation.  That means Schumer would have to take the so-called 'nuclear' option, in which he holds a vote to change the rules to bypass the 60-vote threshhold to advance the legislation.

'If Republicans continue to hijack the rules of the chamber to protect us from protecting our democracy, then the Senate will debate and consider changes to the rules on or before Jan. 17,' Schumer warned on the Senate floor last week.

But Manchin and Sinema don't want to kill the filibuster without buy-in from Republicans, who are opposed. 

And the GOP is prepared to hit back hard, calling Democrats' assertion that voting rights are being suppressed a 'big lie.'

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's office sent out a memo to reporters this weekend slamming Democrats for trying to change Senate rules. They argued their party has 'repeatedly stood up to the left and their Big Lie that there is some evil anti-voting conspiracy sweeping America.' 

Last week, McConnell accused Schumer of being 'hellbent' on trying to break the Senate.

'It appears as if the majority leader is hellbent to try to break the Senate. His argument is that somehow state legislatures across the country are busily at work trying to make it more difficult for people to vote. Of course that's not happening anywhere in America,' he said. 

Republicans also point to a 2016 study from Stanford that found making it easier to vote doesn't actually increase voter turn out. 

'The recent wave of electoral reforms does not seem to have had any significant effect on voter turnout. And there is even evidence that some of the new reforms may have actually decreased turnout,' the study found.

In contrast, Democrats point to what they call a wave of restrictive voting right laws in various states.

Between January 1 and December 7, 2021, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting, the nonpartisan Brennan Center found. More than 440 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions, the center said. 

Democrats are seeking to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late Congressman and civil rights activist. It would replace part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2013.

The bill would also restore voters ability to challenge laws, such as those related redistricting or voter ID requirements that could be seen as discriminatory. 

It passed the House in August 219-212 along straight party lines. 

The Senate is also trying to approve the House-passed For The People Act, which expands voter registration, early voting, mail-in voting and introduces restrictions on campaign finance. 


Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's office called the Democrats' assertion that voting rights are being suppressed a 'big lie'

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's office called the Democrats' assertion that voting rights are being suppressed a 'big lie'

President Joe Biden will get involved in the voting rights fight with a trip to Georgia on Tuesday

President Joe Biden will get involved in the voting rights fight with a trip to Georgia on Tuesday


President Joe Biden will get involved in the fight.

He heads to Atlanta on Tuesday to press the issue - traveling to the home state of civil rights icons the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. Georgia was also ground zero in the 2020 presidential election, where Donald Trump falsely claimed Democrats stole votes to hand Biden a victory there.  

The state also has two competitive races this fall: Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is  in a tough re-election bid and Democrat Stacey Abrams is making a second attempt to become governor. 

He will lay a wreath at the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. and will visit the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock is a pastor. 

He'll speak at the Atlanta University Center Consortium, which consists of four historically black colleges.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is in charge of voting rights efforts for the Biden administration, will accompany the president on the trip. Harris would also be the tie-breaking vote in the 50-50 evenly divided Senate, where Biden needs every Democratic vote to get his agenda approved.  

Separately, the Senate has yet to pass Biden's massive package of social safety net programs known as Build Back Better. 

The House has passed the legislative package but it's held up in the Senate, where it needs every Democratic vote and Manchin killed it with his opposition.

The way forward on it is unclear. Manchin made his opposition known before Christmas and it appears no progress has been made since then.  

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