Biden, a US Senator for over a decade is NOT speaking or supporting changes in the US Senate filibuster that requires 60 Senator’s to agree on any major legislation….
He isn’t alone…
Democrats Manchin and Sinema ALSO do not support a change in chambers rules…
Impatient Democrats want the rule changed so they can pass a new Voting Rights Law (And other legislation) that Republicans are dead set against….
Democrats have the US Supreme Court saying Republican state lawmakers can keep passing voting suppressions laws….
And President Biden isn’t really thinking about this…
He’s busy try to get a HUGE budget bill passed….
Without moving Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema(Ariz.) to abandon their defense of the Senate’s legislative filibuster, the legislation will not advance.
“The silence was deafening on the filibuster question that would make it a reality,” said Joseph Geevarghese, who leads the left-wing group Our Revolution.
“We will not have voting rights legislation unless we have filibuster reform,” agreed Stasha Rhodes of Just Democracy. “You can’t talk about the problem without talking about the solutions. We know the White House sees this as a problem. Our goal is that they share the same level of urgency. But we have to hear how.”….
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The White House has effectively shuffled the question about how to handle the filibuster to the upper chamber. Press secretary Jen Psaki recently called it a “legislative process tool” that’s “important” and “warrants debate.” But she stopped short of taking a stance about any future tweaks, saying that “determination about making changes will be made by members of the Senate, not by this president or any president.”
Other legislation around immigration reforms and gun safety background checks has already passed the House, as has a special commission to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. They too, however, haven’t been able to survive the existing filibuster.
Some Democrats say the For the People Act should be especially important for Biden, given how he rose to the front of the 2020 presidential primary. After low finishes in early and mostly white primary states, Black voters in South Carolina showed their support for him in droves. He easily won subsequent contests with more diverse constituencies.
That South Carolina victory came after a key endorsement from House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who last week called on Biden to back filibuster reform specifically in the name of voting rights….
jamesb says
Here we go….
Lindsey Graham’s efforts to block Democrats reconciliation effort…..
Taking inspiration from Texas Democrats’ bid to stop a new round of election laws in their cite, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he would leave the nation’s capital to block Democrats from passing a key priority of President Joe Biden’s agenda….
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Graham’s departure from Washington alone would not be enough to suspend business in the evenly divided Senate. All GOP lawmakers would have to join Graham in the bid to stop a vote on the bill over a lack of quorum….
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