WASHINGTON — The White House is pressing Congress to pass two major pieces of legislation, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which aim to broaden access to the ballot box, protect election officials from undue partisan influence and raise the bar for states with recent histories of discrimination to change voting laws.

The bills passed the House in one package last week and have majority support in the Senate. But they have no path to 60 votes to break a filibuster in the 50-50 Senate, where Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is the only Republican to support the John Lewis bill and no Republicans support the second bill. Democrats also don't have the 50 votes needed to change the rules to carve out a filibuster exception for voting rights, with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., supporting the 60-vote rule.

The Senate isn't expected to vote before Wednesday, NBC news reported.

President Joe Biden renewed his calls to pass voting rights legislation at a breakfast Monday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. before the Senate is expected to begin a contentious debate over the two bills.

"The attack on our democracy is real, from the January 6th insurrection to the onslaught of Republicans' anti-voting laws in a number of states," he said. "It's no longer about who doesn't get to vote. It's about whether your vote counts at all. It's about two insidious things, voter suppression and election subversion."

Story Date: January 18, 2022