WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate scheduled to break for August recess early next week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, has indicated that he wants to take up revised voting rights legislation before senators leave for the summer.
It’s what the Texas Democrats have been jockeying for, ever since 57 of them fled to Washington from Austin earlier this month to stymie Republican-backed elections legislation back home.
The Democrats have argued that federal voting laws, which would set nationwide elections and ethics standards and curtail gerrymandering, are needed to prevent Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott from tightening voting requirements. Democrats call those measures restrictive and argue that harsher, GOP-backed “election integrity” bills hurt communities of color.
After spending nearly four weeks in Washington, Texas Democrats have been quick to tout their success in drawing national attention to the issue and getting Congress to renew debate on voting rights. The push to delay the Aug. 9 recess has gone national, with more than 100 Democratic out-of-state lawmakers converging in Washington this week to argue that “Recess can wait – democracy can’t.”
The Texas delegation has found allies in prominent national Democrats, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. Klobuchar is chair of the Senate committee that oversees federal elections, and Merkley is the author of the revised For the People Act, the sweeping voting reform bill currently up for potential consideration this weekend.
“Some people don’t want some people to vote,” Klobuchar said at a rally earlier this week where she was flanked by Texas Democrats, referencing a phrase from Sen. Rafael Warnock, D-Ga. “That, my friends, is why we need national, federal, basic standards for voting in this country. That is why we need the For the People Act.”
The Senate has been mostly preoccupied with a historic, $550-billion infrastructure bill for the past few weeks. But Schumer said Wednesday that imminent votes on voting rights legislation are likely, according to The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, the future is uncertain for the runaway Texas Democrats. Abbott confirmed Thursday that he will call a second special session beginning this Saturday, and the controversial election integrity legislation is still a priority.
But “We will not be baited into coming back,” said state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin during a virtual press conference Thursday. Any plans beyond that, she added, are still being kept under wraps.
