CHICAGO — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says Democrats will prioritize bypassing the Senate filibuster tactics to pass voting rights legislation if they retain control of the White House and Senate and win back the House of Representatives in November.
Schumer sought to create a loophole in the Senate filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to end debate and move to a final vote on a bill, to pass voting rights legislation in January 2022. But he was blocked by two centrist members of his conference, Senators Joe Manchin (Washington, Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), both of whom are retiring from Congress at the end of the year.
“One of the first things we want to do is what we did first last time, but I think we will have more success, and that is democracy, dealing with voting rights, dealing with Citizens United, dealing with redistricting,” Schumer said at the Democratic convention in Chicago, adding campaign finance reform and extreme gerrymandering of congressional districts among his top priorities.
Schumer said he worked strenuous to convince nearly the entire Senate Democratic Conference to support targeted filibuster reform in response to voting restrictions enacted by several states after the 2020 election.
The voting rights legislation that the Democratic Party leader wanted to push through two years ago would have set nationwide standards for ballot access, introduced automatic voter registration and made Election Day a national holiday.
Schumer attempted to circumvent the Senate filibuster rule so that the bill could pass with a basic majority, but Manchin and Sinema thwarted his attempt.
He said that when he first proposed the idea of partially repealing the filibuster rule, only 35 members of his conference supported the idea.
“There were probably 35 Democrats willing to change the rules on this issue. We got it down to 48. Of course, Sinema and Manchin voted no. … Well, they’re both gone,” he noted.
Schumer said the Democrat running for Sinema’s Arizona Senate seat, Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), supports filibuster reform to push through voting rights and other democracy-related legislation. Manchin is expected to be replaced by Republican Jim Justice, the governor of West Virginia.
Schumer also identified several other priorities.
One was to limit the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.
Democrats support the Disclose Act, which would require organizations that spend money on elections – including Super PACs and interest groups covered by Section 501(c)4 of the tax code – to promptly disclose donors who gave $10,000 or more during an election cycle.
It is supported by all 51 members of the Senate Democratic Conference.
Democrats led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Laphonza Butler (California) introduced the Redistricting Reform Act of 2024 in February to prohibit partisan gerrymandering, ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and require that districts be drawn to represent communities of interest and neighborhoods as much as possible.
Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that he also wants to prioritize support for affordable housing in any bills Democrats introduce through the budget reconciliation process – another way to circumvent Republicans’ filibuster tactics without changing Senate rules.
“We believe that in terms of reconciliation, we need to do something in housing,” he said. “Housing is desperately needed across America. And not just in urban areas like New York City. Housing is desperately needed in rural areas as well. So housing is a very important issue for us.”
Vice President Harris proposed providing $25,000 in federal assistance to first-time homebuyers if she is elected president during a campaign visit to North Carolina this month.
Schumer also pointed to environmental priorities such as reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
“We want to reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2050 and I think we will succeed with a reconciliation law. That is very, very important.”
And Schumer said Democrats would want to roll back many of the Trump-era tax reforms, such as the 21 percent corporate tax rate that former President Trump introduced in his first year in office.
While many of the tax reforms passed under Trump expire in 2025, there is no expiration date for the corporate tax.
Schumer indicated that he wants to end Trump’s tax breaks for the country’s wealthiest individuals and families. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.
“To solve our fiscal problems, we want to reverse some of the Trump tax cuts that benefited the super-rich who are just doing well,” he said. “They can pay their fair share of taxes.”
He pointed out that business groups like the Business Roundtable only wanted to cut the corporate tax rate from 28 percent to 25 percent in 2017. Instead, Trump and his Republican allies cut it to 21 percent.
“We want to project freedom of choice and see how we can do that,” he added, noting that abortion rights and women’s access to health care would be top priorities in a Democratic Congress in 2025.
