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Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Schumer tees up vote on rules change if voting rights legislation is blocked - NPR

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed the Senate will forge ahead on voting rights legislation and will vote on changing the rules of the upper chamber by Jan. 17 if the GOP once again blocks the bill.

"We must adapt. The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before," Schumer wrote in a Dear Colleague letter Monday morning. This message is his strongest to date suggesting that changes to the legislative filibuster are necessary.

"As former Senator Robert Byrd famously said, Senate Rules 'must be changed to reflect changed circumstances,' " he said. "Put more plainly by Senator Byrd, 'Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past.' "

Schumer is tying voting rights legislation to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob

In an effort to make good on their promise to take up voting rights legislation this month, Senate Democrats are linking the upcoming anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol with what they see as increasing threats to the right to vote enacted by various Republican state legislatures.

"Much like the violent insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol nearly one year ago, Republican officials in states across the country have seized on the former president's 'Big Lie' about widespread voter fraud to enact anti-democratic legislation and seize control of typically non-partisan election administration functions," Schumer wrote in the letter.

Democrats say last year's insurrection was propelled by former...



Read Full Story: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/03/1069888391/schumer-tees-up-vote-on-rules-chang...