Biden to meet with Senate Democrats on Thursday in push for voting bills
President Biden will meet with Senate Democrats during their regular caucus lunch Thursday, following his speech Tuesday on voting rights in which he voiced support for eliminating the filibuster to pass two bills aimed at increasing voter access.
A White House official said both the president and Vice President Kamala Harris will be working the phones over the next several days to try to push senators to support the two key voting bills and changes to Senate rules. The official said the president will meet with Democrats to discuss the "urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote."
Persuading moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to change the Senate rules will be the tallest hurdle for the president and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats want to eliminate the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, to pass two laws: The Freedom to Vote Act, which would establish national election standards, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would reinstate a core provision of the Voting Rights Act — gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013 — that required states with a history of racial discrimination to seek Justice Department approval before changing their election rules.
Schumer set a deadline of Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, for the Senate to either pass voting rights bills or consider making changes to the chamber's rules. In a memo to Senate Democrats sent Wednesday that was obtained by CBS News, the New York Democrat laid out a new strategy for taking up the measures and said the Senate would begin consideration of them "in the coming days."
Under the plan detailed by Schumer, the Senate will use existing rules to force debate on the voting rights legislation by using a shell bill originating in the House as the vehicle for the two voting rights measures. Once the revised bill clears the House, it would move on to the Senate, where support from a majority of senators would be needed to begin debate, according to Schumer's memo.
The majority leader said the strategy "sets up a process in which senators can finally make clear to the American people where they stand on protecting our democracy and preserving the right of every eligible American to cast a ballot."
"With this procedure, we will finally have an opportunity to debate voting rights legislation – something that Republicans have thus far denied," he said.
Schumer acknowledged 10 Republican senators would still need to join all 50 Democrats to end debate on the bills and pass them, which is unlikely. The Senate would then need to change the Senate rules if GOP members block the legislation from advancing, he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has accused Schumer of trying to "attack the core identity of the Senate," and says he didn't recognize Mr. Biden in the speech he delivered Tuesday.
Sinema's office said Wednesday the Arizona senator remains in "regular discussions and meetings" with her colleagues, including with a small group of Senate Democrats Tuesday night. Still, her office reiterated her position remains unchanged.
"Senator Sinema strongly supports and has voted for the For The People Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act -- and will continue to support such efforts, because she believes that the right to vote and faith in our electoral process are critical to the health of our democracy," Sinema's office said in a statement. "As she has throughout her time in the U.S. House and Senate, Senator Sinema also continues to support the Senate's 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans' confidence in our government."
Mr. Biden and Democrats in the Senate have moved on to voting access, as their efforts to pass a sweeping social spending bill faltered in December. They say they still intend to pass the agenda, even with the midterm elections rapidly approaching. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday she believes a deal can still be reached with Manchin on the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill.
— CBS News' Melissa Quinn and Nikole Killion contributed to this report.