Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Monday sent a letter urging congressional leaders to put aside partisan differences and unite to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. The move is seen by many observers on Capitol Hill as an attempt to find a compromise on voting rights legislation at a time when that issue has become highly politicized.
Both senators oppose the “For The People Act” (H.R. 1) because they consider it too widespread in its voting and campaign finance reforms. Republicans are uniformly against H.R. 1, and given that Manchin has made his opposition to nuking the filibuster well known, it means the For The People Act stands little chance of passing at it stands right now. You can read the letter below.
The two senators cited the unanimous passage of the VRA’s 2006 reauthorization to show voting rights has never been a partisan since the bill was first passed 1965 under the LBJ Administration. In the letter, the two write, “we must not allow it to become one today.”
Democrats have also embraced the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which passed the House last session but has not yet been introduced this year. That bill would strengthen the original law and require certain jurisdictions that historically had problems with discrimination, get federal authorization to pass voting restrictions.
Democratic lawmakers want to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act because they view it as a crucial safeguard to fight some of the dozens of voting-restriction bills Republican-led state legislatures have passed since Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Manchin and Murkowski have emerged as the leading voices in the Senate who are calling for toning down partisan fighting and reaching across-the-aisle compromise. The question is, is it too late to expect the Senate to be able to reach a bipartisan agreement on an issue as politically charged as voting rights? Some think aiming for bipartisan cooperation is a waste of time in today’s toxic political climate.