President Biden announced his support for getting rid of the Filibuster in the Senate

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On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced his support for getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate to pass legislation. It will overhaul the US voting laws and counter a raft of new changes pushed by Republicans at the state level. Biden urged legislators to pass 2 laws including the Freedom to Vote Act (it would establish national election standards) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (it would reinstate a core provision of the Voting Rights Act) gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. It required states with a history of racial discrimination to seek Justice Department approval before changing their election rules. President Biden said, “Sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self”.

President Biden added, “It gives me no satisfaction in saying that, as an institutionalist, as a man who was honored to serve in the Senate. But as an institutionalist, I believe the threat to democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote, let the majority prevail. And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this. Now is the time for action and to support the legacy of the late John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr. I’ve been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the last two months. I’m tired of being quiet!”

Moreover, Republicans in some states are trying to put up obstacles to vote. The President said, “The right to have that vote and to have that vote counted is democracy’s threshold liberty. Without it, nothing is possible. But with it, anything is possible. But while the denial of fair and free elections is undemocratic, it is not unprecedented”. Vice President Kamala Harris also urged Americans not to normalize making it more difficult to vote. She said, “Over the past few years, we have seen so many anti-voter laws that there is a danger of becoming accustomed to these laws. It is a danger of adjusting to these laws as though they are normal and danger of being complacent. Anti-voter laws are not new in our nation, but we must not be deceived into thinking they are normal”.