President Joe Biden will endorse clearing the filibuster out of the way of voting rights in a Georgia speech Tuesday, a senior administration official told reporters. While Biden—a lifelong Senate institutionalist—won’t embrace ending the filibuster altogether, he will support a “carve-out” for voting rights because, he will say, of the filibuster’s role in enabling “extreme attacks on the most basic constitutional right.”
“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden will say, according to a preview of his remarks. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand.”
Campaign Action
Several of the voting rights groups that did so much to win Georgia’s electoral votes for Biden and put Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the Senate warned Biden late last week that they were not interested in a speech about voting rights without a plan to get voting rights passed. “Such an empty gesture, without concrete action, without signs of real, tangible work, is unacceptable,” the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, and the GALEO Impact Action Fund said in a statement.
Biden’s support for a filibuster carve-out represents progress on his part, but without a plan to get every single Democratic senator—including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—on board, it won’t matter much. What’s that plan?
Manchin and Sinema did already support one filibuster carve-out on the debt ceiling. But that was something Republicans wanted, even if they weren’t willing to vote for raising the debt limit directly. Getting the votes of the conservative Democrats on something Republicans don’t want—and Republicans definitely don’t want to protect voting rights—is a much more difficult proposition.
In the wake of that debt ceiling vote, Sen. Raphael Warnock directly challenged his Democratic colleagues, saying: “While we cannot let our Republican friends off the hook for not being equitable governing partners, if we are serious about protecting the right to vote that’s under assault right now, here’s the truth: It will fall to Democrats to do it. If Democrats alone must raise the debt ceiling, then Democrats alone must raise and repair the ceiling of our democracy. How do we in good conscience justify doing one and not the other? Some of my Democratic colleagues are saying, ‘But what about bipartisanship? Isn’t that important?’ I say of course it is. But here’s the thing we must remember. Slavery was bipartisan. Jim Crow segregation was bipartisan. The refusal of women’s suffrage was bipartisan. The denial of the basic dignity of members of the LGBTQ community has long been bipartisan. The Three-fifths Compromise was the creation of a punitive national unity at the expense of Black people’s basic humanity.
“So when colleagues in this chamber talk to me about bipartisanship—which I believe in—I just have to ask, ‘At whose expense?’ Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship, and is liberty itself the cost? I submit that that’s a price too high and a bridge too far.”
Biden is making an important step in calling for a Senate rule change to ensure the passage of bills like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore parts of the Voting Rights Act killed by the Supreme Court; and the Freedom to Vote Act, which would limit partisan gerrymandering and block some Republican attacks on mail-in voting. But if he can’t get it done, in the end it really is just words at a time when the future of democracy requires action.
“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden will say, according to a preview of his remarks. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand.”
Campaign Action
Several of the voting rights groups that did so much to win Georgia’s electoral votes for Biden and put Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the Senate warned Biden late last week that they were not interested in a speech about voting rights without a plan to get voting rights passed. “Such an empty gesture, without concrete action, without signs of real, tangible work, is unacceptable,” the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, and the GALEO Impact Action Fund said in a statement.
Biden’s support for a filibuster carve-out represents progress on his part, but without a plan to get every single Democratic senator—including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—on board, it won’t matter much. What’s that plan?
Manchin and Sinema did already support one filibuster carve-out on the debt ceiling. But that was something Republicans wanted, even if they weren’t willing to vote for raising the debt limit directly. Getting the votes of the conservative Democrats on something Republicans don’t want—and Republicans definitely don’t want to protect voting rights—is a much more difficult proposition.
In the wake of that debt ceiling vote, Sen. Raphael Warnock directly challenged his Democratic colleagues, saying: “While we cannot let our Republican friends off the hook for not being equitable governing partners, if we are serious about protecting the right to vote that’s under assault right now, here’s the truth: It will fall to Democrats to do it. If Democrats alone must raise the debt ceiling, then Democrats alone must raise and repair the ceiling of our democracy. How do we in good conscience justify doing one and not the other? Some of my Democratic colleagues are saying, ‘But what about bipartisanship? Isn’t that important?’ I say of course it is. But here’s the thing we must remember. Slavery was bipartisan. Jim Crow segregation was bipartisan. The refusal of women’s suffrage was bipartisan. The denial of the basic dignity of members of the LGBTQ community has long been bipartisan. The Three-fifths Compromise was the creation of a punitive national unity at the expense of Black people’s basic humanity.
“So when colleagues in this chamber talk to me about bipartisanship—which I believe in—I just have to ask, ‘At whose expense?’ Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship, and is liberty itself the cost? I submit that that’s a price too high and a bridge too far.”
Biden is making an important step in calling for a Senate rule change to ensure the passage of bills like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore parts of the Voting Rights Act killed by the Supreme Court; and the Freedom to Vote Act, which would limit partisan gerrymandering and block some Republican attacks on mail-in voting. But if he can’t get it done, in the end it really is just words at a time when the future of democracy requires action.