Biden Backs Voting Rights Push With Economic Plan Stalled
- Manchin objections risks pushing action on agenda to 2022
- Schumer had pushed to get Biden agenda passed by year’s end
President Biden while while surveying storm damage in Kentucky, on Dec. 15.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
President Joe Biden said he’d back Senate Democrats taking on voting rights legislation if they have the votes as his nearly $2 trillion economic agenda is stalled by intra-party disputes and may be shelved until the new year.
The legislation known as Build Back Better has been held up in part because of objections from West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to numerous components. With the path forward on that bill potentially blocked, Democrats now are discussing reviving a long-stalled bill to expand voting rights and possibly changing Senate rules to make it more painful for Republicans to use filibusters to block legislation.