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Democrats in the Senate this week will try to advance
legislation setting new national election standards, seeking to
counter voting-rights rollbacks at the state level.
Republican-controlled legislatures are pursuing these in
presidential election swing states liked Pennsylvania, Florida
and Arizona.
"Even if the voting rights bill was sailing across the finish
line with support of every member of Congress, there would still
be more to be done," Psaki said. "So again this is not the end
of our effort, this in some ways is the beginning."
Senate Democrats spent the weekend trying to finalize a bill
that could win the support of all 50 Democrats and independents
in the 100-member chamber. Republicans showed no signs of
joining an effort that would expand voting by mail and change
the way congressional districts are drawn in an effort to
prevent them from being defined along partisan lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled a procedural
vote for Tuesday to let the Senate begin debating an election
reform bill.
President Joe Biden is appreciative of the efforts by Senator
Joe Manchin to push the voting rights bill forward, Psaki said.
Manchin, a moderate Democratic senator, opposes a broader bill
passed by the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives in
March and offered his own election reform ideas last week.
Psaki said failure to pass the voting rights legislation would
prompt new consideration of the legislative "filibuster" rule,
which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation.
Democrats could try to scrap or modify the rule, leaving
Republicans powerless if the Senate's 48 Democrats and two
independents stick together.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose in Washington;
Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)
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