Schumer makes major caveat ahead of Senate voting rights vote. He may have had Joe Manchin in mind.

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

published 21 June 2021

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday announced that the upper chamber will vote Tuesday on whether to launch a debate on federal voting rights legislation.

Schumer was careful to make sure lawmakers understood that the vote was not on "any particular policy," and is merely aimed at beginning discussions on one of the more contentious issues in Congress at the moment, as Democrats try to move a sweeping reform bill toward President Biden's desk amid Republican opposition. "I want to say that again," Schumer said, for emphasis, after a pause.

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Even if Manchin is on board with Tuesday's vote, it seems likely to fail since there probably won't be enough, if any, GOP senators who will back debate on a bill they don't support, writes Politico's Burgess Everett.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.