Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Senate Democrats are trying to advance voting rights legislation, which would require changing Senate rules to pass.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Senate Democrats are trying to advance voting rights legislation, which would require changing Senate rules to pass.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Past attempts to advance voting rights legislation to the floor of the Senate have failed, but Senate Democrats believe they have found a way past a procedural hurdle to at least start debate on voting rights legislation this week.
In a memo obtained by NPR, Democrats say that they plan to use existing Senate rules to open debate on two voting rights bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It takes 60 senators to agree to start debate on a bill, as well as as well as end it, but the Senate can start consideration of a message from the House of Representatives with a simple majority vote.
So, the House is expected to send both those bills to the Senate as part of a message.
“With this procedure, we will finally have an opportunity to debate voting rights legislation – something that Republicans have…