© (TASOS KATOPODIS/AFP via Getty Images)Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, asks questions during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law.
In the opening bid by Senate Democrats to pass a voting rights bill that would usher in sweeping changes to U.S. elections, Republicans looking for an issue to unite them showed that they had found something concrete to rally around.
The bill represents the most significant overhaul of the U.S. electoral process in decades and comes on the heels of a contentious 2020 presidential election - one that former President Donald Trump continues to claim was rigged against him.
For Democrats, the bill is viewed as essential to block legislation adopted by a growing number of Republican-controlled states that imposes voting restrictions and stands to disenfranchise certain groups of people, including voters of color who overwhelmingly back Democratic candidates.
"These bills moving in state capitals across American are not empty threats," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee whose members spent Tuesday debating the bill and offering amendments. "They are real efforts to stop people from voting."
But for Republicans who have spent the early Biden administration in skirmishes around the culture wars and frequently associate voter rights with voter fraud, the bill gives party leaders something concrete to energize and unite their base heading into the 2024 midterm elections, where both chambers are up for grabs.
In a nod to show just how serious Republicans are about tanking the voting rights bills, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made a rare appearance at Tuesday's committee hearing where he outlined his opposition to the proposal and accused Democrats of making "hysterical attacks.
"Our democracy is not in crisis," the Kentucky Republican said. "This is a partisan effort to take over how you conduct elections in our country."
The committee markup marks the opening act of Senate Democrats' efforts to push the bill forward, and Republicans have said they plan to use every procedural tool in their toolbox to stymie those efforts, beginning today by offering dozens of amendments aimed at what they consider non-starters, like the proposed changes to the federal agency that oversees elections and the establishment of a new public financing system for political campaigns.
They also took aim at provisions that stand to alter how states run their individual elections, with several Republican committee members arguing that the bill would make it easier to tamper with elections.
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, ranking member of the committee, said the bill would "make elections less fair and less secure."
"This is, in my view, a bad bill with bad policies that creates more problems than it does solutions," he said.
The committee markup is expected to take days and potentially spill into next week before it's ready for a committee vote that would advance it to the Senate chamber, where Democrats face uncertain, if not grave, odds in the evenly divided chamber.
While Senate Democrats are keen on bolstering voting rights, some moderates would prefer a scaled back bill instead of a sprawling overhaul, believing it would make good on the Biden administration's preference for bipartisanship and force Republicans to cast difficult "no" votes.
Even if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can corral his entire caucus into supporting the measure, the New York Democrat all but certainly won't get the blessing of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to change the filibuster rules, which would be needed to pass the bill in a 50-50 split Senate.
While the path forward is unclear, the bill is far from dead on arrival, as deal-making abounds in the Oval Office this week, where President Joe Biden met yesterday with Manchin and Tuesday with Sinema regarding his infrastructure packages. He's also set to meet with the so-called big four - the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
Democrats have been working on a voting rights package for years now, and Biden has said it's one of his top priorities.
Schumer, who also made a rare appearance at the committee, urged his colleagues to back the bill, arguing that it was their best shot at beating back the voting restriction laws in red states that "carry the stench of oppression" and "the smell of bigotry."
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