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When Biden Says He’ll “Refine” the Voting Rights Bill.
There are certain parts of the legislation that Democratic lawmakers won’t like any more than Republicans.
After the passage of the Covid 19 relief bill, Democrats have their eyes on some more legislation before they settle in to focusing on re-election bids and fundraising. Among some of the legislation Democrats have identified as being at the top of their priority list is the sweeping voting rights bill that has passed the House of Representatives not too long ago. The New York Times has reported the bill would “impose new national requirements weakening restrictive state voter ID laws, mandate automatic voter registration, expand early and mail-in voting, make it harder to purge voter rolls and restore voting rights to former felons”. Of course, as The New York Times has also correctly observed, the bill is likely to die in the Senate if Democrats do no decide to end the filibuster.
That has not deterred Joe Biden, who has expressed his support for the bill and is looking forward to working with congress to “refine” the landmark legislation.
When Biden says “refine”, it feels worth asking what exactly the President means, and what pieces of the Bill we can expect he’ll be willing to throw away.