As the United States Senate prepares to vote on a bill that would completely federalize all elections in the country, one Democrat is still voicing opposition to eliminating the 60-vote filibuster, according to The Hill.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), widely seen as one of the two most moderate Democrats in the Senate, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in which she declared “I oppose eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold” for overcoming a filibuster by the minority party. Doing so, she said, would threaten “democracy’s guardrails,” and would see the country “lose much more than we gain.”
The controversial bill that will soon be voted upon is H.R. 1, also known as the “For the People Act.” The bill would implement numerous controversial election practices at a federal level, including processes that are ripe for voter fraud, such as nationwide mail-in voting. Such methods were among the primary reasons for widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which may have ultimately shifted the outcome away from President Donald Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
The bill is all but guaranteed to face a Republican filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome. In the tied 50-50 Senate, and with no Republicans having voiced any support for the bill, it is widely expected that it will be defeated by the Republican minority. As such, numerous far-left activists have called for the abolition of the filibuster, while others have called to “reform” it.
The other moderate Democrat in the chamber, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has allegedly voiced his support for slight reform to the filibuster process by reducing the threshold from 60 votes to 55 votes. Sinema, however, explicitly said that she refuses to consider getting rid of the 60-vote requirement, although she does support public debate on the matter.
“It is time for the Senate to debate the legislative filibuster, so senators and our constituents can hear and fully consider the concerns and consequences,” Sinema’s article continued. “Hopefully, senators can then focus on crafting policies through open legislative processes and amendments, finding compromises that earn broad support.”
Sinema warned that a possible elimination of the filibuster could ultimately backfire on the Democrats in the event that Republicans ever regain the majority, allowing them to pass bills with narrow majorities that could simply repeal anything they pass now. Comparisons have been drawn to the controversial decision by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2013 to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to end filibusters against judicial and executive branch nominees; as a result, the post-2014 Republican majority was able to confirm well over 200 federal judicial nominees during the presidency of Donald Trump despite no support from Democrats.