WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argued is vital for
protecting democracy was blocked Wednesday by a Republican filibuster, a setback for President Joe Biden
and his party after a raw, emotional debate.
Democrats immediately pivoted to debate a Senate rules change as a way to overcome the filibuster, but
that was also headed toward defeat. Biden has been unable to persuade two holdout senators in his own
party, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to change the Senate procedures for
this one bill.
"This is a moral moment," said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
The nighttime voting capped a day of piercing debate that carried echoes of an earlier era when the
Senate filibuster was deployed by opponents of civil rights legislation.
Voting rights advocates are warning that Republican-led states nationwide are passing laws making it more
difficult for Black Americans and others to vote by consolidating polling locations, requiring certain
types of identification and ordering other changes.
Vice President Kamala Harris briefly presided, able to break a tie in the 50-50 Senate, but her vote did
not appear to matter.
"The president and I are not going to give up on this issue," Harris said as she left the
Capitol.
Sinema and Manchin are unwavering in their resistance to changing the filibuster rules, denying their
party the votes. The two have withstood an onslaught of criticism from Black leaders and civil rights
organizations, and they risk further political fallout as other groups and even their own colleagues
threaten to yank campaign support.
The Democrats’ bill, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, would make Election Day a national holiday,
ensure access to early voting and mail-in ballots — which have become especially popular during the
COVID-19 pandemic — and enable the Justice Department to intervene in states with a history of voter
interference, among other changes. It has passed the House.
Both Manchin and Sinema say they support the legislation but, Democrats fell far short of the 60 votes
needed to advance the bill over the Republican filibuster, failing 49-51 on a party-line vote. Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted no for procedural reasons so Democrats can revisit the
legislation.
Instead, Schumer put forward a more specific rules change for a "talking filibuster" on this
one bill. It would require senators to stand at their desks and exhaust the debate before holding a
simple majority vote, rather than the current practice that simply allows senators to privately signal
their objections.
But even that was expected to fail because Manchin and Sinema have said they are unwilling to change the
rules on a party-line vote by Democrats alone.
Emotions were on display during the floor debate.
When Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky whether he
would pause for a question, McConnell left the chamber, refusing to respond.
Durbin said he would have asked McConnell, "Does he really believe that there’s no evidence of voter
suppression?"
The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said at one point, "I am not a racist."

McConnell, who led his party in doing away with the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court
nominees during Donald Trump’s presidency, warned against changing the rules again.
McConnell derided the "fake hysteria" from Democrats over the states’ new voting laws and
called the pending bill a federal takeover of election systems. He admonished Democrats, and said doing
away with filibuster rules would "break the Senate."
Manchin drew a roomful of senators for his own speech, upstaging the president’s news conference and
defending the filibuster. He said majority rule would only "add fuel to the fire" and it was
"dysfunction that is tearing this nation apart."
"For those who say bipartisanship is impossible, we have proven them wrong," Manchin said,
citing the recent infrastructure bill he helped pass into law. "We can do it again. … We can make
it easier to vote."
Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus walked across the Capitol building for the proceedings.
"We want this Senate to act today in a favorable way. But if it don’t, we ain’t giving up,"
said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking Black member of Congress.
Manchin did open the door to a more tailored package of voting law changes, including to the Electoral
Count Act, which was tested during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. He said senators from
both parties are working on that and it could draw Republican support.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said a bipartisan coalition should work on legislation to ensure voter
access, particularly in far-flung areas like her state, and to shore up Americans’ faith in democracy.

"We don’t need, we do not need a repeat of 2020 when by all accounts our last president, having lost
the election, sought to change the results," said Murkowski.
She said the Senate debate had declined to a troubling state: "You’re either a racist or a
hypocrite. Really, really? Is that where we are?"
At one point, senators broke into applause after a spirited debate between Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,
among the more experienced lawmakers, and new Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., over the Voting Rights Act.
Sinema sat in her chair throughout much of the debate, largely glued to her phone.
Once reluctant himself to change Senate rules, Biden has stepped up his pressure on senators to do just
that. But the push from the White House, including Biden’s blistering speech last week in Atlanta
comparing opponents to segregationists, is seen as too late.
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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Brian Slodysko contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show the name of the act tested by Jan. 6 events is the Electoral Count
Act, not the Electoral College Act.

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