WASHINGTON – A sprawling voting rights bill supported by Senate Democrats faced dozens of Republican attempts to change it Tuesday, reflecting the bitter partisan divide in Congress.
The legislation that touches everything from voter registration to absentee ballots and campaign finance was expected to survive a marathon session of the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
But the committee found little common ground on election reform. Klobuchar said the bill, dubbed the For the People Act, would set “basic national standards” for U.S. elections. Laws currently being put in place by some Republican state legislatures to restrict absentee voting and early voting used in the 2020 elections have been “coordinated and overwhelming,” Klobuchar said. She described the GOP-led push in dozens of states as “real efforts to stop people from voting.”
The ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, countered that the legislation amounts to a federal takeover of elections and is a “bad bill filled with bad policies.”
The gridlock likely to mark the day became obvious when the equally divided committee voted along party lines after nearly two hours of debate on a package of changes Klobuchar offered. Klobuchar’s amendments sought to adjust some deadlines and offer other changes designed to accommodate difficulties state and local election officials said they would have in meeting the bill’s requirements.
All nine Republicans on the 18-member committee voted against Klobuchar’s amendments, with many saying the changes did nothing to stop the fundamental reforms with which they disagreed. Under the committee’s rules, amendments that do not receive a simple majority fail.
The 9-9 vote also signaled that Republicans were unlikely to break with their party on dozens of other amendments. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas planned to offer 47 amendments of his own.
An amendment offered by Republicans to do away with a national standard for early voting died in a partisan tie. So, too, did Democrats’ offer to shorten the time early voting can take place.
While the conversation was generally civil, the dysfunction of Congress was on full display. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a rules committee member, said recent state voting restrictions on absentee voting “carry the stench of oppression” and the “stench of bigotry.” He said state legislators’ explanation that the new laws are necessary to fight voter fraud fed former President Donald Trump’s discredited claims that he lost the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also on the committee, disputed that the Democrats’ voting rights bill was a “racial justice bill.” He said criticisms that the new Georgia law targeted people of color who voted in record numbers by absentee ballot in 2020 had been “debunked.”
Despite the polite exchanges and denials of bigotry, Cruz claimed the intent of the bill was to “register millions of illegal immigrants.”
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon called Cruz’s contention “a falsehood.”
If the bill clears the Rules Committee on a tie vote, Schumer can bring it to the Senate floor, but its prospects are slim in the divided Senate.
Jim Spencer • 202-662-7432