Chuck Schumer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are returning to Washington under intense pressure to pass voting legislation in the face of stark criticism from civil rights leaders. The Senate is set to launch debate today after civil rights leaders implored them to change the rules and break a Republican-led filibuster that has stalled the voting bill.
Attention is focused intently on Democrats Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. They were singled out with a barrage of criticism during Martin Luther King Jr. Day events on Monday.
The bill, supported by Democratic President Joe Biden, would change the 60 vote rule to end a filibuster. A filibuster is a tactic employed by opponents of a proposed law to prevent the measure’s final passage.
Neither Senator has shown signs of changing their minds on their opposition to changes to the filibuster rules on what advocates call the “Jim Crow filibuster.”
NY Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had called for a vote on the proposed change before Monday’s federal holiday honoring the late slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
