Top Democrats in the House are spearheading a new effort to convince the Senate to carve out a historic exception to the filibuster that would allow them to push through their marquee voting rights and election reform legislation over unanimous Republican opposition. The sweeping measure to expand voting rights known as S1 fell victim to a Republican filibuster last month after the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his leadership team unified the conference to sink the bill in a party-line vote. Clyburn’s outreach to top Senate Democrats and the Biden administration comes after the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, brought the issue of filibuster reform to the forefront by forcing votes last month on some of Biden’s most high-profile measures. “In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line,” Schumer said. “The people did not give Democrats the House, Senate and White House to compromise with insurrectionists,” the Democratic congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote on Twitter after Republicans blocked S1, illustrating the sentiment.

Source: The Guardian July 13, 2021 07:01 UTC