Biden to make direct appeal to Senate Democrats to pass voting rights legislation

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to head to Capitol Hill Thursday to make a direct appeal to Senate Democrats to follow through on his administration’s push for voting rights legislation.

Biden is scheduled to meet with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus behind closed doors in the afternoon during their luncheon. The president will “make the strong case” directly to lawmakers that he made publicly in his speech in Atlanta Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will also both be “working the phones” to put pressure on reluctant lawmakers, Psaki said.

On the other side of the Capitol Thursday, the House is set to pass two pieces of voting rights legislation — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The lower chamber will combine the two bills and send it to the Senate as a “message,” which will allow Democrats to open debate on the package with a simple majority, without Republican votes.

Democrats are expected to hit a roadblock with the 60-vote filibuster. They’re unlikely to draw the support of 10 Republicans due to their overwhelming opposition to the voting bills.

The Freedom to Vote Act has no Republican support in the Senate. The John Lewis bill has one GOP backer: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Democrats have been discussing a rule change in the Senate that would allow them to circumvent a GOP blockade of the bills.

Once the bills are filibustered, “we will need to change the Senate rules as has been done many times before,” Schumer said in a letter, obtained by NBC News, to his caucus Wednesday.

Many Democrats want to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to ease passage of the voting rights bills in the 50-50 Senate. But not all Democrats are on board.

Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., support the two voting rights bills but not a rule change to pass them. Sinema wants to keep the filibuster and Manchin has been reluctant to change Senate rules on a party-line basis, saying last week that it was his “absolute preference” to find a bipartisan way to advance the bills.

In a post on Medium Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of Democratic leadership, stressed that her party shouldn’t let the filibuster stop them from passing historic reforms.

“To be absolutely clear: we cannot let the filibuster stop us from ever debating voting rights or any other issue one member might find objectionable,” Murray wrote. “If it’s the filibuster or democracy, I’ll choose our democracy. If it’s Senate rules or a Senate that works for the American people, I’ll choose a Senate that works.”

In an op-ed for USA Today, former President Barack Obama wrote that the filibuster has no basis in the Constitution and has in recent years become a “routine way” for the Senate minority to block progress on issues supported by a majority of voters.

“We can’t allow it to be used to block efforts to protect our democracy. That’s why I fully support President Joe Biden’s call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote,” he wrote.

Schumer has said that he wants to pass the voting rights legislation on or before Monday — Martin Luther King Jr., Day.

The Freedom to Vote Act would create a set of standards for federal elections to ensure that voters have similar access to the ballot box nationwide. It would require states to offer a minimum number of days for early voting and the ability to vote by mail for any reason. It would also make Election Day a national holiday.

The bill named after the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., would update the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark legislation that barred discriminatory election laws.

Sahil Kapur and Jane C. Timm contributed.

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