Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is wasting no time. After previously indicating he would bring the "For the People Act" up for a vote sometime before the August recess, he indicated in a letter to Democrats on Friday that the vote will take place in June. As Schumer told reporters, specifically the week of June 21. "Friday marks the first time he's tied it to a hard timeline," Jordain Carney reported for The Hill.
This bill is an unconstitutional disaster, as perhaps most memorably emphasized by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). "Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. This is a bill as if written in hell by the devil himself," he had said in March on "Fox & Friends."
A major concern is it will upend our system of federalism by forcing states to surrender their authority over elections to Congress, and cement Democratic control for generations.
Worse, the bill is crafted to make it exceedingly difficult for states to bring suits, in part because it forces them to do so at the D.C. Circuit Court.
Carney acknowledged it is very much a partisan bill:
The Senate Rules Committee earlier this month deadlocked on the bill in an hours-long, heated markup, with Republicans unanimously voting against the legislation.
The bill, which passed the House without any GOP support, requires states to offer mail-in ballots and a minimum of 15 days of early voting, while calling for online and same-day voter registration. The measure also calls for the creation of independent commissions to draw congressional districts in an effort to put an end to partisan gerrymandering.
The late June vote is guaranteed to set up a fight on the Senate floor with Republicans over both the bill and the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance most measures. No GOP senators have voiced support for the bill, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who opposes eliminating the filibuster, has also been critical of it.
Concerned groups speaking out against the legislation include Heritage Foundation and Election Transparency Initiative, which is a joint project of Susan B. Anthony List and American Principles Project and is chaired by Ken Cuccinelli. There's also Honest Elections Project, a partner organization. Townhall spoke with HEP's executive director, Jason Snead last month, who outlined many of the concerns mentioned above.
This isn't the only piece of legislation under the radar. According to Carney in a separate piece for The Hill, Schumer also warned on Friday that he reserved the right to bring a bill back to the floor again to create a January 6 commission. As Spencer reported, the bill failed in the Senate by a vote of 54-35, after Republicans successfully filibustered it. Schumer's announcement came not long after the bill failed to advance.