Schumer says Senate to vote on Biden plan despite Manchin objections

[December 20, 2021]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will move ahead with a vote on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan early next year despite opposition from a key Democratic senator, and will also take up voting rights legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), with Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), speaks to reporters after the weekly party policy caucus luncheons at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. December 7, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files

"The Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better Act, very early in the new year so that every Member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television," he wrote in a letter to colleagues.

"We are going to vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act – and we will keep voting on it until we get something done."

On Sunday, moderate Democrat Senator Joe Manchin dealt a potentially fatal blow to Biden's $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, telling Fox News in an interview that he would not vote for the measure..

Schumer also said Congress' upper chamber would move to consider voting rights legislation soon after returning from its holiday recess in January and would look at changing procedural rules if Republicans "continue to abuse the filibuster" to block the bill.

"If the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the state level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?" he wrote.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Toby Chopra and Pravin Char)

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