PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — On the same day Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, which is dominated by Republicans, passed an election reform bill, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a sweeping voting rights bill, backed by congressional Democrats, from advancing. The Biden Administration vowed that their "fight is far from over."
The state House passed the bill on Tuesday, 110-91. The measure calls for voter IDs to be mandated and changes to registration and ballot counting deadlines. The next step will be debate in the state Senate.
Gov. Tom Wolf, on Twitter, said he would veto the bill if it got to his desk as is. He also questioned the motivation of the bill’s backers — "the same ones who asked Congress to throw out PA votes and whose lies directly contributed to the Jan. 6 insurrection."
Tuesday's vote in the U.S. Senate was on whether or not to move the legislation, known as S.1, or the For The People Act, to debate. It turned out to be a 50-50 vote, along party lines. Democrats needed Republican support to get to 60 votes and avoid the filibuster.
Democrats, through the bill, are looking to provide a federal response to actions in states like Pennsylvania, where GOP-led state legislatures are debating or enacting stricter election laws, which voting rights advocates argue make voting more difficult for people, especially minority residents.
The For The People Act aims to remove barriers to voting, curb the influence of money in politics, and limit gerrymandering. Republicans argue that the legislation goes too far and voting laws should be left to the states.
Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania called it a "power grab," tweeting that it "would effectively nullify state voter ID laws, mandate public funding of political campaigns, and transform the Federal Election Commission into a partisan body empowered to limit free speech."
"Today the Senate is going to fulfill our founding purpose, stop the partisan power grab and reject [the bill]," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said before the vote.
"Whichever label Democrats slap on the bill, the substance remains the same. It’s always been a plan to rewrite the ground rules of American politics."
Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the chamber, told reporters after the proceedings that the Democrats' goal continues to be to protect the rights of all voters, which she said is not a partisan issue.
"This is about the American people’s right to vote — unfettered. It is about their access to the right to vote in a meaningful way," Harris said.
"Unfortunately, a Democratic stand to protect our democracy met a solid Republican wall of opposition," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "Senate Republicans opposed even a debate — even considering legislation to protect the right to vote and our democracy."
Many Republicans continue to argue for the need to combat voter fraud in response to the 2020 election. Former President Donald Trump and other GOP lawmakers claim, without evidence and after suffering losses in courtrooms around the country, that the election was stolen.