The vote, which is likely to take place Wednesday, might be the last dance for federal voting rights legislation.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-sweeping-voting-rights-bill-republicans-promise-filibuster-n1281651
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Sahil Kapur
Voting-rights advocates are seething over the near-total stagnation in Washington. But they see a new opening with the filibuster.
When President Joe Biden recently floated the possibility for a filibuster carveout for raising the debt limit, supporters leapt at the chance to bypass the supermajority threshold for efforts to expand access to the ballot.
“Once you make an exception for something as existential as raising the debt ceiling, it makes it much easier to do the same for something as existential as democracy itself,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who has long called for Biden to support liberals’ efforts to eliminate the filibuster.
But Jones and other backers of Democrats’ voting bills may be in for another round of disappointment. When Democrats accepted the short-term, debt-limit deal offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to punt the deadline until December, it also postponed any discussion about changes to the filibuster — which advocates see as blocking any real chance of sending legislation to Biden’s desk.
“Quite frankly, we know that the likelihood of legislation getting passed without that [change] is very slim at this point,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the CEO of the League of Women Voters.
Desperate to generate momentum with the debate focused elsewhere, some voting-rights groups are now trying to crank up the heat on the White House, urging Biden to call for the same exception for Democrats’ stalled voting bills.
On Tuesday, a group of about 100 protesters picketed outside the White House, led by the League of Women Voters and the People For the American Way. They have promised to repeatedly demonstrate outside the White House, in an effort to get Biden’s attention.
“This was one of his priorities. This was part of the platform that he ran on to help strengthen and fix our democracy,” said Solomón. “We’ve heard a lot of words coming from the White House. But we haven’t seen a lot of action.”
Five of the protestors — including Ben Jealous, the president of the People For the American Way and former NAACP head — were arrested after refusing to leave Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House. They were all held overnight, before ultimately being released without any charges.
“I think about Kamala, and I think about Joe. I know them as friends,” Jealous told the crowd, minutes before he was arrested on Tuesday. “We need our friends to stand up and be friends to the people of this country, have the courage that it takes to actually move voting rights forward.”
Cedric Richmond, the Biden senior adviser and former Louisiana congressman, argued the White House had taken action on its own — including an executive order to government agencies to find ways to increase voter participation, along with movement out of the Justice Department, including appointing well-regarded civil rights lawyers to top positions and growing the civil rights division.
He also said the White House remained engaged with Capitol Hill over voting rights.
“We are pushing Congress to act in terms of legislation, and we’re using our political capital to get it done. Doesn’t always have to be in public and seeking the attention for doing it,” Richmond said in an interview.
“I think the activists missed the fact that this is the first time we had all of the Democratic senators in favor of a bill. And now that we have that, we’re pushing that and so we’ll have a vote and then we’ll go from there,” he continued.
And even if Biden was to publicly pressure the Senate on the filibuster, there are still barriers in the way: Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), both who have ardently supported the existing rules, which they say will prevent both parties from passing extreme legislation.
On Wednesday, before the agreement with McConnell was announced, Manchin once again shot down a change for the debt ceiling. “Nothing’s changing” on the filibuster, he told reporters.
Yet even with the reanimated filibuster conversation, what has been particularly grating to some advocates is that voting rights has repeatedly played second fiddle to other legislative priorities in Congress.
“We can’t even have a conversation about voting rights, because infrastructure, once again, is kind of blocking the way,” said Texas state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a liberal Democratic lawmaker who was part of the group of Texans who fled the state over the summer in order to block a Republican-led bill that added new restrictions to voting in the state.
For those Texas Democrats, it is a particularly bitter pill to swallow. “Everything that we foreshadowed,” has come to pass in their state, Crockett said. The bill that they temporarily blocked is now law in Texas, after enough Democrats returned to the state House after weeks away to provide a quorum. And early proposals for the state’s new congressional map lock in Republican seats across the state.
“When it comes to voting rights, you see the remedy coming after the harm. And sometimes when the harm is already done, the remedy is really inconsequential,” said Texas state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat.
In Congress, Democrats have been unable to send any voting-rights legislation to the president’s desk because of both filibusters, or the threat thereof, from Republicans and some intra-party squabbling. Their first attempt — the For the People Act, which got the symbolic H.R. 1 (117) and S. 1 (117) designations as the party’s top priority — died in the Senate because Manchin did not support it, and was also later filibustered by Republicans after Manchin agreed to a procedural vote.
Senate Democrats have now turned their attention to two other pieces of election legislation: the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and was introduced in the Senate this week, and the Freedom to Vote Act, a pared down version of H.R. 1 that Manchin brokered with his Democratic colleagues.
The West Virginian has been in conversations with Republican colleagues to try to find any sort of compromise, POLITICO has reported, but the odds of securing 10 Republican senators who would sign on to break a filibuster for any sort of election legislation is very low. That looming failure is one of the last things advocates pin their hopes on for Manchin to change his mind on the filibuster.
“A reasonable person in Joe Manchin’s position would, upon discovering that there are not 10 Republican senators of good conscience … will vote to make an exception to the filibuster,” Jones, the freshman New York congressman, said.
It will be tested soon. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Monday that senators should be prepared to consider both pieces of legislation “this work period or immediately at the start of the next.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/07/voting-rights-advocates-senate-filibuster-515630
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Zach Montellaro
With the Democratic-led House of Representatives expected to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, pressure is growing on the Biden administration and Senate Democrats to abolish the filibuster, without which new voting rights legislation and other Democratic priorities have no hope of passing the Senate. We speak with Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, as voting rights groups protest in front of the White House. Jealous says the action is intended to “up the pressure on Biden” to call on the Senate to get rid of the filibuster. “The filibuster was the insulator of Jim Crow. It is an accident of legislative history. It’s not part of the Constitution in any way,” Jealous says.
Source: https://www.democracynow.org/2021/8/24/filibuster_voting_rights_legislation
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The Article Was Written/Published By: webdev@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
Family members of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) joined progressive activists on Thursday at a rally outside the White House to call on President Biden to urge the Senate to nix the legislative filibuster….
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/567603-family-of-john-lewis-joins-rally-pressing-biden-to-help-end-senate-filibuster
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Marty Johnson
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that scrapping the filibuster would “throw the entire Congress into chaos” and that “nothing at all will get done.”
During a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, the president was repeatedly pressed on his stance on the legislative filibuster, which establishes a 60-vote threshold to move most bills through the Senate. Biden deflected when an audience member asked him if abolishing the filibuster is the logical next step to address the attack on voting rights — what Biden has called the “most significant threat to our democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden said the “abuse of the filibuster is pretty overwhelming,” before talking about his decades in the Senate, when members had to “hold the floor.” The president stuck to his long-standing position and said he supports filibuster reform that would return to those rules, requiring those who oppose a bill to remain physically on the Senate floor in order to block it.
When pressed by CNN’s Don Lemon on why the filibuster is worth protecting, Biden said keeping the filibuster is not more important than protecting voting rights. He said that he believes his administration and Congress can pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act without axing the Senate rule — one Biden has agreed, as former President Barack Obama put it, is a “relic of the Jim Crow era.”
He said abolishing the rule would give Republicans in Congress an excuse to spend time debating the filibuster instead of passing his legislative agenda.
“There’s no reason to protect it other than you’re going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done. Nothing at all will get done. And there’s a lot at stake. The most important one is the right to vote,” Biden said. “Wouldn’t my friends on the other side love to have a debate about the filibuster instead of passing the recovery act?”
In recent months, more of the Senate’s 50 Democrats have expressed a willingness to abolish or modify the filibuster, as activists have continued to put pressure on the White House to budge. The president’s reluctance to shift has put him at odds with civil rights leaders, labor and social justice advocates, as well as a growing number of Democrats.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/21/biden-nothing-done-filibuster-abolished-500502
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Myah Ward
Two-thirds of Democratic primary voters in Arizona say they would support a primary challenge to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) if she continues to oppose filibuster reform in the Senate, …
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/563905-poll-two-thirds-of-az-democratic-primary-voters-would-back-primary
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Max Greenwood
Filibuster exception would allow Democrats to push through their voting rights reform bill over unanimous Republican opposition
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 Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team unified the conference to sink the bill in a party-line vote.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/house-democrats-senate-filibuster-exception-voting-rights
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Hugo Lowell in Washington DC
Sen. Raphael Warnock tells Axios he won’t let the Senate’s fixation on passing a pair of infrastructure bills prevent it from also protecting the voting system that narrowly allowed him to win his new job.
What they’re saying: “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” the Georgia Democrat said. “Voting rights is bigger than the filibuster. And shame on us if we’re more committed to a Senate rule (preserving it) than we are to the principles of democracy.”
Warnock’s not alone on either front.
Between the lines: Democrats set the bar far too high with the “For the People Act,” which was always too ambitious to have a real shot at passing. Now, those who care about it are desperately trying to keep the issue relevant as it takes a backseat to infrastructure.
The big picture: The concern voiced by Warnock, Kaine and other Democrats is rooted in the jam-packed agenda that senators confront through the end of the year.
Be smart: That leaves little time to haggle over other massive legislation, with preserving or restoring voting rights potentially left out of the discussion.
Source: https://www.axios.com/warnock-vows-voter-protections-3d722c63-3ab1-49d1-aee8-1d624ec9c19d.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Alayna Treene
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is urging President Biden to back filibuster changes to allow Democrats to pass their key election reform measures with only Democratic support….
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/562384-clyburn-urges-biden-to-back-filibuster-changes-for-election-reform
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordan Williams
Democrats are confronting the reality that absent any seismic shifts, their top agenda items face long, if not impossible, odds in the Senate amid growing frustration with the legislative filib…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/559742-killibuster-democratic-angst-grows-as-filibuster-threatens-agenda
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a sweeping bill to overhaul federal elections, ratcheting up already inflamed tensions over voting rights.Senators voted 50-50 in the evenly divided Senate on advancing the For…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/559679-senate-gop-blocks-voting-rights-bill
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will force a vote Tuesday on a sweeping bill to overhaul federal elections.Schumer informed his caucus of the schedule during a closed-door meeting on Thursday, a Sen…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/559002-schumer-to-force-vote-tuesday-on-sweeping-election-bill
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/10/the-filibuster-why-us-congress-needs-to-end-the-paralyzing-process
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Schuchat
A coalition of progressive groups are upping the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to nix the 60-vote legislative filibuster after Republicans were able to successfully block a bill using the pro…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/556643-progressives-ramp-up-pressure-on-schumer-to-nix-filibuster
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
The filibuster has been on hiatus since Joe Biden took over. Senate Republicans are about to change that — over a bipartisan commission to probe the Capitol riot.
After more than four months of letting their power to obstruct lie unused in the Senate, the 50-member Senate GOP is ready to mount a filibuster of House-passed legislation creating an independent cross-aisle panel to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. If Republicans follow through and block the bill, they will spark a long-building fight over the filibuster’s very existence.
The filibuster has spent months of lurking in the background of the Senate’s daily business, but the battle over the chamber’s 60-vote threshold will erupt as soon as next week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is plotting to bring the House’s Jan. 6 commission bill to the floor and daring Senate Republicans to block it.
And GOP opposition is hardening by the day. According to interviews with more than a half-dozen Republicans on Thursday, there is almost no path to even opening up debate on the bill — much less passing it.
“I don’t think there will be 10 votes on our side for it,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind). “At this stage, I’d be surprised if you’re gonna get even a handful.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been circumspect about his use of the filibuster, leaving the tool untouched so far this Congress as his conference has advanced Democratic bills confronting hate crimes, planning water infrastructure and increasing American competitiveness. But the Jan. 6 commission — and talking about former President Donald Trump for months on end — is a bridge too far for the GOP.
Now that McConnell is pushing his conference toward a filibuster of a bipartisan bill, Democrats see an opportunity to begin making their case to reluctant members that the 60-vote status quo is unsustainable.
As an incredulous Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) put it: “How do you go forward if you can’t make it work over something like an independent commission?”
“That’s their problem. They can prove how difficult life is with the filibuster if they’re not careful,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. “When the filibuster is actually used, it becomes an exhibit in the case against continuing it.”
Some Republicans, such as Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, are still amenable to opening debate on the bill and amending it to ensure the investigation is completed this year and that the commission is staffed in a bipartisan way. But overall, Senate Republicans have rapidly shifted into wholesale opposition to the commission concept this week, reasoning that tanking a commission in May of 2021 is better than setting up Trump headlines well into the midterm year.
GOP senators aren’t exactly looking forward to the moment.
“It’s a dicey vote. It’s set up to be anti-Trump, pro-Trump vote, in my view,” said one undecided Republican senator. “As somebody who voted not to impeach, I still am interested in finding out what happened.”
What’s more, Trump has directly linked himself to the vote on the commission. He criticized the 35 House Republicans who supported it and is publicly leaning on the Senate GOP to defeat it. It would not be lost on Democrats that Republicans appear to be using the filibuster to help Trump avoid months of headlines about his actions stoking the Jan. 6 riot.
Democrats didn’t exactly draw it up this way. Just a few days ago, it appeared the Republican Party wanted to make changes to the bipartisan commission, not block it altogether.
The more salient vote for the filibuster’s future might come this summer when Democrats’ voting-rights plans hit the Senate floor. And unlike other Democratic priorities, the bipartisan commission appears to have unanimous party support.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the filibuster’s strongest supporters in the Democratic Party, seemed aghast that his GOP colleagues are on track to block the bill.
“So disheartening. It makes you really concerned about our country,” Manchin said. Asked if that is an abuse of the filibuster: “I’m still praying we’ve still got 10 good solid patriots within that conference.”
McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Thune have not begun twisting arms, but leadership has delivered an unmistakable message that the commission needs to be disposed of on the Senate floor when Schumer brings it up. McConnell’s close ally, former Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.), has been making an aggressive case against the bill.
Burr, the most surprising vote for Trump’s conviction at his impeachment trial, said there are no changes that could be made to the legislation to win his support.
“I know how difficult it is. So this myth that you could finish this by December? You probably couldn’t even get your staff security clearance to read the documents,” Burr said. “There’s no question” this would bleed into the midterms.
Burr and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said they expect committee reports on the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riot at the Capitol to come down in June, arguing that would preempt the need for a bipartisan commission with subpoena power. Not all Republicans are sold on their line of thinking.
“I’m not going to worry about the party. I’m going to worry about what’s the right thing for the country and for the Senate. And I support the effort to learn more about the attack on Jan. 6,” Romney said. “Susan Collins made good points in insisting the staff be a bipartisan staff and making it clear that we really do intend to be finished by the end of the year. I will not have this go into an election year.”
Besides Burr, the other six Republicans like Romney that voted to convict Trump are either undecided or supportive. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has been most emphatic in his support for the commission.
But it’s hard to find a path to 60 votes without a more general acceptance in the GOP that a commission is needed. Several senators reported that in the GOP caucus room, momentum is building the other way.
Moreover, it’s an open question whether the Senate will wrap up work on Schumer’s American competitiveness legislation before its upcoming recess. That means the commission vote could slip until June, which would fail to capitalize on the current mayhem in the House GOP over Rep. John Katko’s (R-N.Y.) deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the investigative panel.
Blunt said Republicans could make it difficult for Schumer to quickly move onto the Jan. 6 commission if Schumer tries to force a vote next week. He said Schumer’s competitiveness bill “wouldn’t succeed” if he attempted to rush it through to move toward the commission vote.
But if Republicans blocked the competitiveness bill, that too would be the first filibuster of this Congress. Progressives are itching to start the filibuster fight, regardless of which bill prompts the first one of this Congress.
“If we get to a point where compromise, bipartisanship is not going to work, and it’s just basically delaying what we need to be doing, then we need to face the issue of filibuster,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “I’d like to see it dealt with now.”
Marianne Levine contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/filibuster-gop-opposition-commission-489954
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Burgess Everett
Senate Republicans are signaling that they will allow for a debate of an anti-Asian hate crimes bill, defusing a potential filibuster standoff that was expected to come to a head on Wednesday.Democrats will force a…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/548060-senate-gop-signal-they-wont-filibuster-debate-of-hate-crimes-bill
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said it is senators’ behavior, not Senate rules such as the filibuster, that must change in order to pass legislation through the upper chamber.”When you have a plac…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/546698-sinema-defends-filibuster-senators-should-change-their-behavior-work-together
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Lexi Lonas
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said in an interview released Thursday that she supports repealing the filibuster for constitutional issues, including voting rights legislation and other measures….
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/545931-hillary-clinton-filibuster-should-be-lifted-for-voting-rights-legislation
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Marina Pitofsky
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is looking at whether he could pass a third bill this year through reconciliation, an arcane budget process that lets Democrats avoid the legislative filibuster.
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/545331-schumer-eyes-bypassing-filibuster-for-third-bill
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Abortion rights proponents are breaking with other progressive groups and sitting out the fight over abolishing the Senate filibuster, fearing the maneuver would quickly backfire on them when Republicans are back in charge of Washington.
Groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL know that killing the legislative filibuster could remove an obstacle to getting abortion rights legislation on the books while Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time in a decade. At the same time, they see how easy it would be for a future Republican Senate to roll back progressive policies and implement new bans, and they keenly recall getting burned by the GOP’s similar rules change for Supreme Court nominees in 2017. That puts them at odds with unions, social justice groups and others who think that the filibuster should be abolished so they can get their current priorities through.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).
The dilemma is more apparent as red states rush to enact a new wave of abortion curbs in hopes of prompting the Supreme Court to revisit and potentially overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion nationwide. At the same time, congressional Democrats find themselves stymied on abortion rights bills that, for example, would codify the Roe decision or block states from enacting abortion bans that are not deemed medically necessary, with a handful of conservative Democrats opposed to lifting restrictions on the procedure.
“If you’re Planned Parenthood or another progressive group, the possibility of getting federal pro-choice legislation passed is fairly remote,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law who’s an expert on the abortion debate. “Keeping the filibuster for a rainy day when Republicans are controlling Congress makes sense for them.”
Indeed, some recent Republican anti-abortion bills have been blocked only because of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for legislation, including a ban on the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy that garnered 53 votes in the previous Congress. Experts on abortion politics believe such bills would easily get through a Republican-controlled, post-filibuster chamber and be signed into law if the GOP controlled the House and the presidency.
“We’re very supportive of those groups who are coming out against the filibuster, and we’re not going to work against their push to end it, but it’s not our focus,” said a Planned Parenthood official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “There are always threats to abortion rights, filibuster or not. We are always at risk and under attack no matter who is in Congress or what the rules are.”
A spokesperson for NARAL said the filibuster is “a dynamic, moving target, and we’re watching the conversation really closely.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday declined to say whether he would support ending the 60-vote threshold for passing most bills, even though the tactic continues to imperil his party’s agenda. “It’s going to be hard to get a parliamentary ruling that allows 50 votes to end the filibuster, the existence of a filibuster,” he said during his first news conference as president.
Abortion foes who’ve long backed the filibuster — themselves worried about the potential for Democrats to roll back abortion restrictions — have ramped up their advocacy around the issue with radio ads, billboards and rallies urging West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, one of few anti-abortion Democrats, to hold the line and oppose any rules change. And conservatives are warning those abortion rights supporters tempted to wade into the fray to be careful what they wish for.
“Just ask Harry Reid how that went with the judicial filibuster,” said Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, referencing the Democratic leader’s 2013 “nuclear option” that lowered the 60-vote threshold for most presidential nominations. In 2017, Republicans pushed through another rules change that would allow President Donald Trump to get three justices confirmed through a simple majority vote.
Hawkins, whose group held a rally in Charleston, W.Va., and bought billboards reading “Save babies, save the filibuster,” said she’s long urged fellow conservative activists to look beyond the short-term gain of passing individual abortion bans and focus on the long-term threat of more structural reforms Democrats want to pursue.
The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List similarly targeted Manchin with a recent six-figure radio and digital ad campaign that argued for keeping the filibuster, warning in the spots that Democrats would otherwise authorize “taxpayer funded abortion” and “pack the Supreme Court with pro-abortion liberals.”
“There are definitely differing opinions in the pro-life movement and people who said we should have gotten rid of [the filibuster] when we had the chance,” said Mallory Quigley, the group’s vice president of communications . “But even when the shoe was on the other foot, we didn’t do it, because we’re in this for lasting change.”
Even if Democrats abolish the filibuster and pass an array of pro-abortion rights laws, they’d likely find an unfavorable reception in a federal court system that’s been filled out by scores of Trump appointees — not to mention conservatives’ 6-3 Supreme Court majority.
Hirono said there’s still a benefit to bringing up bills and holding up-or-down votes, which puts senators on the record on hot-button issues like abortion. Beyond legislation to write Roe v. Wade into law, abortion rights groups want to press forward with bills that would, for example, permanently end the Mexico City Policy — a ban on international aid for health groups overseas that provide or refer for abortions.
“If we’re going to move some of the really important legislation that we need to, I think we’re going to need to do filibuster reform. Otherwise you’re going to see Mitch McConnell blocking everything,” she said.
But the more cautious stance may be winning out, even if it splits abortion rights groups from some long-term allies.
“We have really close relationships with immigrant justice and economic justice groups and we want to be in allyship with them on this,” said Kelsey Ryland, the co-director of abortion coverage campaigns at All* Above All. “But we have seen in previous Congresses that the filibuster is what has stood between us and nationwide bans on abortion care. We have a lot of history with really bad bills that would have decimated access if they’d been implemented.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/26/abortion-rights-filibuster-478092
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Alice Miranda Ollstein
