Senate To Vote On Election Reform Next Month, Setting Up Another Filibuster Fight

Just after Senate Republicans filibustered plans for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced the chamber will take up another contentious matter next month: sweeping voting and elections reform.

Schumer told colleagues in a letter Friday that the Senate will vote on the For the People Act at the end of June, during the final week of the Senate’s work period. He called the bill “essential to defending our democracy, reducing the influence of dark money and powerful special interests, and stopping the wave of Republican voter suppression happening in the states across the country in service of President Trump’s Big Lie.”

Schumer said at a press conference later Friday that “everything’s on the table” for getting important bills passed. He has previously used the same language to discuss taking action to pass the For the People Act, including by making changes to filibuster rules.

The bill would block the voting changes Republican states have enacted since Trump’s loss, such as restrictions on mail-in ballots, by setting minimum standards for ballot access that include automatic and same-day registration. The bill would also reform campaign finance, creating a donor matching system that would use public funds to boost small campaign contributions, and it would require more lobbyist disclosures.

Republicans have already launched an assault on the bill, which is a top priority for Democrats to counter efforts around the country to limit access to voting. Particularly after Friday’s filibuster ― the first of Joe Biden’s presidency ― the For the People Act will test moderate Democrats’ commitment to maintaining Senate rules that shut down any chances of getting key legislation passed.

The filibuster rules require 60 votes to move forward to even debate most legislation. Proponents, including Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), argue the filibuster encourages bipartisanship. But in practice, it allows even bipartisan measures to be steamrolled. The Jan. 6 commission, for example, had support from 35 Republicans in the House, and six GOP senators voted to move forward with it. It still fell victim to the filibuster.

But in order to change filibuster rules, Schumer would need more support. Democrats hold only 50 votes in the Senate, plus a tie-breaker in Vice President Kamala Harris.

Manchin and Sinema have both said their views on the filibuster won’t be swayed. But they will be under increased pressure to adjust their stance now, particularly on the For the People Act, given its importance to Democratic voters and lawmakers.

Manchin is the only Democratic or independent senator who is not co-sponsoring the legislation, although he has said he supports elements of it. He has said he will only back a measure with bipartisan support; a tough proposition, considering Republicans are pushing to make voting more difficult in response to ex-President Donald Trump’s lies about mass fraud in the 2020 election. Manchin instead proposed another voting reform measure, which would not, in its current form, actually stop the voting access restrictions that are being enacted at the state level.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has made clear that he will do what he can to block the For the People Act.

“If this bill were to pass, nobody would have any confidence in [our democracy],” he said during a hearing on the bill earlier this month. “None whatsoever.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.