Members of the Democratic Party in the Senate will hold a procedural vote on the For the People Act, which will ultimately fail because Republicans plan to filibuster it. In order for the bill to pass, it would need at least 10 Republicans to support it as well as ALL 50 members of the Democratic Party “to clear the needed 60-vote threshold.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bill an effort to respond to restrictive voting laws in GOP-led states like Georgia, but argued that the procedural vote is simply to allow debate and an amendment process that will shape the eventual bill.
“It’s not a vote on any particular policy. It’s not a vote on this bill or that bill. It’s a vote on whether the Senate should simply debate voting rights,” he said Monday. “Donald Trump, with his despicable lies, has lit a fire under Republican state legislatures and they have launched the most sweeping effort at voter suppression in 80 years.”
NBC:
In the old days, Mitch McConnell favored voting rights, but that’s changed and not for the better:
On Monday, President Obama called the filibuster a “tool for obstruction” and urged Republican senators not to use it to block a key vote on the For the People Act voting rights bill this week.
“Think about this: In the aftermath of an insurrection, with our democracy on the line and many of the same Republican senators going along with the notion that somehow there were irregularities and problems with legitimacy in our most recent election, they’re suddenly afraid to even talk about these issues and figure out a solution on the floor of the Senate,” Obama said.
“That’s not acceptable,” he added.
NBC:
The vote will take place sometime on Tuesday.
