Senate Rules Fight Could Be Advanced By House's NASA Gambit

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Emily Wilkins
@emrwilkins
Now that Schumer has confirmed @BGOV/@bpolitics's scoop from yesterday that a NASA bill will launch voting rights in the Senate, let's break this down because it gets real wonky real fast.

about.bgov.com
Senate Rules Fight Could Be Advanced By House’s NASA Gambit | Bloomberg Government
Democrats preparing for a showdown on Senate debate rules as soon as this week are eyeing an unrelated NASA bill to force the issue.
3:06 PM · Jan 12, 2022

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1481387072191668232.html

Now that Schumer has confirmed @BGOV/@bpolitics's scoop from yesterday that a NASA bill will launch voting rights in the Senate, let's break this down because it gets real wonky real fast.

Senate Rules Fight Could Be Advanced By House’s NASA Gambit | Bloomberg Government
Democrats preparing for a showdown on Senate debate rules as soon as this week are eyeing an unrelated NASA bill to force the issue.

https://about.bgov.com/news/senate-rules-fight-could-be-advanced-by-houses-nasa-gambit/

Think of this as a Trojan Horse.

Voting rights legislation are the Greeks, and the Senate is Troy.

Schumer tried to bring voting rights (Greeks) to the Senate floor (Troy) a few times.

All failed and died during procedural votes (moat around Troy)

The horse in this story is an amendment to H.R. 5746, that NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act of 2021.

Why this legislation?

Because the bill already passed House & then Senate. (Senate added the amendment, so the bill had to come back to the House.)

The plan is to put text of voting rights bills (the Greeks) inside an amendment to H.R. 5746 (the horse.)

(More specifically, the Greeks = combo of John Lewis and Joe Manchin voting rights/election bills. The exact language is still being worked on.)
HERE'S THE WONKY PART. Because lil' old amendment to H.R. 5746 has already passed the Senate, it doesn't need 60 votes to cross the Moat of Senate Procedure

(AKA, the moat where other voting bills die.)
It only needs 50 votes to cross the moat and be debated on the Senate floor (get into Troy)
Now. Here is where the metaphor comes to a screeching halt.

The Greeks won the Trojan War.

But as of now, it doesn't look like voting rights will pass.
Democrats can force debate to start on the Senate floor.

But you need another 60 votes to end debate and vote.
(Or a rules change.)
So the bottom line is this -

Voting rights is going to Trojan Horse into the Senate and senators will be forced to debate the bill.

But actually getting a vote will require a rules change or the support of 10 GOP senators - and there's no indication either of those will happen.
• • •

[WHITT]

1. Wonky

Double-Bagger.