In recent months, President Biden and congressional Democrats have focused almost all their attention on passage of two major infrastructure bills. After the House voted to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill funding roads, bridges and broadband internet on Nov. 5, the president signed the bill into law. But Senate Democrats have yet to fully debate and vote on Biden’s more expansive $1.75 trillion human infrastructure bill.
Meanwhile, Republicans have had a very different focus. Across the country, the GOP has proposed 425 voter suppression bills in 49 states, passing 33 such laws in 19 states — making it more difficult for communities of color, young people and other Democratic leaning constituencies to vote. But because Democrats have thus far failed to pass two pieces of legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gutted by the Supreme Court, more than 150 scholars of U.S. democracy warn that there is only a “slim window of opportunity left to act … and midnight is approaching.”
These scholars from top U.S. universities, say that unless the majority party temporarily suspends the Senate filibuster rule and passes the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on a simple majority vote, free and fair elections will be undermined and “likely result in an extended period of minority rule, which a majority of the country would reject as undemocratic and illegitimate.” Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way, who has been arrested for participating in civil disobedience actions demanding voting rights protections. Here, he discusses the urgency of pushing President Biden and Senate Democrats to move quickly to pass voting rights legislation.
BEN JEALOUS: What we’re asking of Joe Biden is simple. We’re asking that President Biden call on the Senate just like he did for the infrastructure bill, just to get the job done to clear a path for an up or down vote.
Vice President Harris, it’s worth noting, has done her job. She has cobbled together every Democratic senator and you know that’s like herding cats, especially with Sinema and Manchin. We have them all on board for the John Lewis bill. We have them all on board for the Freedom to Vote Act.
We simply need to clear a path for an up or down vote, and that really doesn’t happen ever unless the president of the United States calls on his party to just get it done, create a carve out in the filibuster and get a vote on the bill.
And so that’s what we’re demanding now. It’s important it be done this month and be done in December, because if we don’t, then we will see a wave of partisan gerrymandering, really a vindictive wave of partisan gerrymandering in a way that we haven’t seen in a very, very long time.
SCOTT HARRIS: President Biden has been really laser-focused on his bipartisan infrastructure bill and now this Build Back Better bill. This piece of massive legislation that was whittled down, unfortunately, but still a lot of great things in there for people all across the country of all parties.
And that’s important, of course. But I take it, you’re of the opinion that voting rights should have been the priority and maybe these infrastructure bills could have come later. Or what is your view here?
BEN JEALOUS: Well, I mean, look, I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. As important as roads and bridges are, as important as infrastructure is as desperately needed as that bill is and supportive, in a democracy, you’re always existing on the edge of a knife. And there’s never anything more important than actually preserving the democracy itself.
It should not be harder. It certainly should not be harder to pass a voting rights bill in a democracy than it is to pass a bill to secure our roads and bridges.
SCOTT HARRIS: The real obstacle it seems to passing these two critical pieces of voting rights legislation is the filibuster, and they need 51 votes — all 50 Democratic senators plus Vice President Kamala Harris to usher in an exception to the filibuster, which has been done many times before on different issues. Lately, I’ve been reading news accounts that Krysten Sinema, Democratic senator of Arizona, has restated her opposition to reforming the filibuster, which could kill this whole thing.
What’s the latest that you’re hearing and how — if that opposition stays current — how could that be overcome?
BEN JEALOUS: I think honestly, it’s just going to have to be a push. The reality is that we need the president of the United States involved. There are things that only the president can convince a senator to do. And the reality is that we don’t have to get rid of the filibuster. There’s many ways to reform the filibuster that would still keep it in place. There are ways to create a carve out through their way through the reform.
We could go back to the days of Jimmy Stewart, the days when Mr. Smith goes to Washington. The days of, you know, you’re going to have to run your mouth to block this bill. And the minute you stop, we’re going to bring it to a floor vote.
There are also ways to do it where you basically have some kind of multiple votes, and each time you lower the threshold until you get down to 51.
In America, we believe that majorities matter. And if they do, then they should matter in the U.S. Senate. It’s ridiculous that you cannot pass a bill in the U.S. Senate with 51 votes. You actually have to have 60 out of 100 votes just to get a vote on the floor. You know, there’s nothing in the Constitution about the filibuster.
This is an accident of history. Quite frankly, it’s been used most frequently throughout history to preserve really bad things like Jim Crow or the exclusion of women from voting. So I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful someone can put up some resistance, I’m hopeful that one way or the other, we can get an up or down vote on voting rights.
SCOTT HARRIS: Can public pressure in, for instance, Sen. Sinema’s home state of Arizona move her to do that? Or does it have to be national action?
BEN JEALOUS: I think both, you know, and people are definitely organizing in Arizona. It’s important we’ve been doing some of that work, too. Quite honestly, I think she also, frankly, seems to have national ambition. I think you need to understand the people of this country are deeply upset with her obstructionism, and it seems worth people, you know, give a call, call the Senate hotline and, you know, ask for her office and let her know.
But also, frankly, call the White House and really demand that Joe Biden take action.
SCOTT HARRIS: As you said before, Ben, during the 2021 legislative sessions around the country, more than 425 bills that promoted the restriction of voting access were introduced in 49 states.
As you said, almost every state has had these things. Thirty-three such bills have passed and been signed into law in 19 states, and this includes, you know, the voter suppression, but also issues of election subversion. And that’s the case where we have some states that are putting in place regulations that allows the legislature to overturn the popular will and the winner of elections in the future. Really alarming stuff.
What in the bills that are that you’re working to pass, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act can address that, especially the voter subversion issues?
BEN JEALOUS: In a nutshell, the John Lewis bill restores the power of the U.S. Department of Justice to stop bad redistricting plans, bad voter suppression bills before they take effect. So it restores the power of the DOJ to preempt bad laws that would suppress the vote, that would deny people their democratic rights.
The Freedom to Vote Act puts out the fires that are already exist. Deals with these bad laws that have been passed. Deals with, you know, these restrictions on Sunday voting laws that have been passed. Deals with these, you know, removal of polling places from minority neighborhoods that have been passed.
So we need both. One, if you will, prevent the next round of attempts to light the Constitution on fire and destroy our voting rights. And the other one puts out the flames that are that are currently burning in our democracy.
For more information, visit People For The American Way at pfaw.org.
