Biden to meet with Senate Democrats on Thursday in push for voting bills
CBSN
President Biden will meet with Senate Democrats during their regular caucus lunch Thursday, following his speech Tuesday on voting rights in which he voiced support for eliminating the filibuster to pass two bills aimed at increasing voter access.
A White House official said both the president and Vice President Kamala Harris will be working the phones over the next several days to try to push senators to support the two key voting bills and changes to Senate rules. The official said the president will meet with Democrats to discuss the "urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote."
Persuading moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to change the Senate rules will be the tallest hurdle for the president and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats want to eliminate the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, to pass two laws: The Freedom to Vote Act, which would establish national election standards, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would reinstate a core provision of the Voting Rights Act — gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013 — that required states with a history of racial discrimination to seek Justice Department approval before changing their election rules.
