Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Thursday maintained their stance on not changing the long-established Senate filibuster rule.
Sinema made a speech in the Senate chambers, reaffirming her position not to change the long-established Senate filibuster rule of the 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation.
“I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said during her speech, adding she has had “longstanding support” for the 60-vote threshold.
“It is the view I continue to hold. It is the belief I have shared many times in public settings and in private settings,” Sinema continued. “Eliminating the 60-vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy.”
Shortly after her floor speech, Manchin, who effectively killed the Democrats’ $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act last year when he said he could not vote for the bill, stated it was “very good” and an “excellent speech.”
“I think it’s the points that I’ve been making for an awful long time and she has, too,” he said.
Senate Democrats are trying to change the long-established Senate filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pledged to force a vote this week on the rule changes to help make Congress’s upper chamber the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Even though the Senate Democrats have Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie-breaker vote when needed, it is still not enough to pass parts of the Democrat’s partisan agenda items that have been blocked by the two senators and Senate Republicans.
The Senate Democrats hoped to pass two “freedom to cheat” voter bills that would cripple Republican attempts across the county to increase election integrity in states. The two legislative vehicles — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — were passed in the House on Thursday.
To change the rule, Democrats would need to have all 50 members of their caucus vote in favor of the rule change, which is not possible without Manchin and Sinema.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.