John Lewis voting rights bill faces bleak future in the Senate after McConnell deems it unnecessary By Grace Segers What s next for federal voting rights bill?
Widespread Republican opposition to two major pieces of voting rights legislation is leading some Democratic lawmakers and activists to fear that Congress will be unable to pass either bill this year, even as several state legislatures enact restrictive voting measures.
Later this month, the Senate is set to take up S. 1, or the For the People Act, an expansive but controversial voting and elections reform bill. The measure was already unlikely to pass, as Democrats hold a razor-thin 50-seat majority in the Senate, and 60 votes are required to advance most legislation. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin also announced Sunday that he opposes it, hammering another nail in its legislative coffin.
"One party is driving the measures to restrict voting in this country," said a union rep, "and it is the other party that is trying to do something about that."
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Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who holds Rep. John Lewis’ seat, explains how the For the People Act works with the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to reverse restrictive voting laws and prevent future voting laws from being passed.
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, Newsweek Columnist and chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley On 6/9/21 at 10:59 AM EDT
On Sunday, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced in an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail that he opposes the For the People Act. He also opposes ending the filibuster.
An op-ed in the most prominent state newspaper is as non-negotiable a position as a politician can assert. It was a direct thumb-in-your-eye response to President Biden s thinly-veiled criticism of Manchin last Tuesday in Tulsa, where Biden explained why he was having difficulty getting passage of what was supposed to be his highest priority: new voting rights legislation that would supersede a raft of new laws in Republican-dominated states designed to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters, using Trump s baseless claim of voter fraud as pretext.