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Civil rights activists and voting rights groups this week are intensifying pressure on Congress to advance federal voting rights legislation as a bulwark against an array of new laws in Republican-controlled states that make it harder to vote.
Activists say they also are growing increasingly impatient with President Joe Biden and his reluctance to demand an end to the Senate's filibuster rule that establishes a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the chamber. They want Biden to exert pressure on Democratic holdouts on the filibuster to allow a pair of federal voting bills to pass the Senate by a simple majority vote. The bills, activists say, will counteract efforts by Republicans to restrict voting access as former President Donald Trump and his allies persist with false claims of a rigged election.
With the Senate Democrats already facing enough opposition from Senate Republicans over the voting rights bills, perhaps Pres. Biden is hoping that he won't have to directly intervene against the GOP filibuster. He may not want to further the concept of an 'us vs. them' relationship between Democrats and Republicans.