‘The big lie is spreading like a cancer’: Senate Dems move to advance sweeping voting rights bill
The Senate’s top Democratic and Republican leaders made rare appearances at a contentious Tuesday hearing to argue for and against a bill that would bring about the most significant expansion of voting rights in a generation — underscoring the high stakes at play for both sides in the battle over election access in America.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed the case that the so-called “For the People Act” would fill an essential role in safeguarding democracy at a time when GOP legislators in states like Georgia are enacting election laws that critics say are deliberately designed to disenfranchise Black, Latino and low-income voters.
“We are witnessing the greatest contraction of voting rights since the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow,” the New York Democrat said at a Senate Rules Committee hearing. “It’s a danger to the Republic.”
The rules panel is tasked with marking up bills before they can be considered on the floor by the full Senate — a lengthy, dry process that party brass like Schumer rarely attend.
But the For the People Act, which would widely expand voting rights on a federal level, has become a major point of contention for Republicans and Democrats, as lawmakers grapple with how to handle the issue in the wake of the tumultuous 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Schumer’s Republican counterpart, also showed up at the rules committee grilling to provide a counterpoint to the Democratic messaging.
“Our democracy is not in crisis and we aren’t going to let one party take over our democracy under the false pretense of saving it,” McConnell said, arguing that the For the People Act is constructed to help Democrats remain in power.
But Schumer pushed back, noting that, unlike laws being passed by Republican state legislators, the For the People Act would make it easier to vote.
The New York lawmaker blasted the GOP push for stricter voting limits as an extension of former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
“Unfortunately, the big lie is spreading like a cancer among Republicans. It’s enveloping and consuming the Republican Party,” Schumer said.
Georgia, Florida, Arizona and a handful of other Republican-led states have or are expected to pass bills that implement a range of election restrictions, including limiting early voting and making it a crime to hand out food or water at polling sites.
The For the People Act, which passed the House last month, is seen by Democrats as an antidote to the Republican campaign to roll back voting rights.
The bill would create automatic voter registration nationwide, mandate that states offer 15 days of early voting, require more disclosure from political donors and restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, among other changes.
The bill would also compel states to offer no-excuse absentee voting, a priority for Democrats after President Biden’s supporters cast ballots by mail in the 2020 election in large numbers.
The Senate Rules Committee was expected to advance the measure late Tuesday after Republicans forced votes on dozens of doomed-to-fail amendments — a common stall tactic that allows them to debate for hours.
But once the legislation hits the floor, the Senate’s 50 Democrats face what looks like a near-impossible task.
Due to the filibuster rule, the bill would need 60 votes to pass — and McConnell’s Republican caucus is unified in opposition.
Complicating the effort further, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat, has said he’s not onboard with the bill as written, arguing it gives too much power over elections to the federal government — although some analysts point out that the mercurial Manchin might change his mind.
While senators squared off over the voting rights bill, House Republicans were gearing up on the other side of the U.S. Capitol to remove Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from leadership over her refusal to stop criticizing Trump over his 2020 election claims.
Schumer used the Cheney debacle as an aside to his argument for expanded voting rights.
“Down the hall from us, House Republicans are plotting the demotion of a Republican member for the crime of repeating the truth: that Joe Biden is the president of the United States and that Donald Trump is lying,” Schumer said.
“Liz Cheney spoke truth to power. And for that, she’s being fired.”
