Senate buries electoral reform, Joe Biden “deeply disappointed”

For Joe Biden, it’s a stinging failure that sums up his difficult first year in the White House. On Wednesday evening, the Senate dealt the final blow to the major electoral reform defended by the American president. Two Democrats joined Republicans in defending the rule requiring a supermajority of 60 out of 100 elected officials to pass most bills. Joe Biden said he was “deeply disappointed” but “determined to defend the right to vote”.

The irony is that centrist Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema first voted in favor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. This bill was supposed, according to the Democrats, to guarantee access to the ballot boxes for minorities in response to the restrictions passed by some twenty Republican states after the 2020 presidential election.

But the rules are such in the Senate that a simple majority is not enough to adopt a text, with the exception of those relating to the budget or for the confirmation of judges. The rule of filibuster allows the opposition to block debates indefinitely. To put an end to it, a majority of 3/5, or 60 senators out of 100, is necessary.

Biden “optimistic” for a compromise on the social envelope

The leader of the democrats, Chuck Schumer, asked for a second vote to change the rules, and remove, only for this text, the filibuster. Manchin and Sinema then voted with the Republicans to defend a rule, guaranteeing, according to them, a search for compromise in the Senate. During the debates, Joe Manchin recalled that a short-term victory could turn against the Democrats the day they will again be in the minority. Under Obama, they notably removed the filibuster for the confirmation of the federal judges, and the Republicans had then slipped into the breach by doing the same for the Supreme Court. Conclusion: Donald Trump was able to confirm three ultra-conservative judges by a simple majority.

Will Joe Biden have to give up his progressive ambitions in the coming months? At a marathon press conference, the US president dismissed the idea. But he acknowledged that his sweeping social and climate spending plan, Build Back Better, could probably not be adopted as it stands in the face of opposition from Joe Manchin. However, he said he was “confident”, betting on the adoption of “large parts” of the text – probably by removing the tax credit for dependent children – by the midterms of November. While the Republicans are favorites to regain control of Congress, Joe Biden has ten months to save part of his mandate.