CONGRESS McConnell leads attack on Dems’ voting rights bill
WASHINGTON — Republicans launched an allout assault Tuesday on sweeping voting rights legislation, forcing Democrats to take dozens of politically awkward votes during a committee hearing that will spotlight the increasingly charged national debate over access to the ballot.
The bill would bring about the largest overhaul of U.S. elections in a generation, touching on almost every aspect of the electoral process. Democrats say the changes are even more important now as Republicancontrolled states impose new voting restrictions after the divisive 2020 election.
Yet it’s a motivating issue for Republicans, too, with
GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell so determined to stop Democrats that he’s personally arguing against the measure, a rare role for a party leader that shows the extent to which Republicans are prepared to fight.
Republicans will offer scores of amendments to highlight aspects of the bill they believe are unpopular, including the creation of a public financing system for political campaigns, an overhaul of the federal agency that polices elections and dozens of provisions that would dictate how states conduct their elections.
“We should be finding ways to rebuild trust, not destroy it further,” McConnell told the Senate Rules Committee, pointing to the bitterly contested outcomes of the past two presidential elections.
States including Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Texas are pushing new voting rules, spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims about election fraud after his 2020 loss.
Democrats are on defense, having been unable to halt the onslaught of new state rules that will take months or years to litigate in court. That leaves passage of legislation through Congress as one of the few remaining options to counteract the GOP efforts.
“These bills moving in state capitals across America are not empty threats, they are real efforts to stop people from voting,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee.
But Sen. Roy Blunt, RMo., the top Republican on the panel, predicted the bill, if passed, would yield an “unmitigated disaster” in future elections.
President Biden has said the federal legislation would “restore the soul of America” by giving everyone equal access to the vote.