House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will visit the White House on Friday afternoon to discuss narrower voting rights legislation.
The meeting between the Democratic leaders and the Biden administration, which will take place at 1:45 p.m. ET, according to a Democratic source familiar with the planning, comes as both House and Senate Democrats seek to advance a slimmed-down package.
In the House, a group of 34 Democrats — many of whom are facing tough reelections next fall — have launched an internal push for streamlined voting legislation, according to a letter obtained by NBC News. And in the Senate, a group of Democrats expressed optimism this week that they could reach a deal on voting legislation as soon as next week while a more sweeping bill, the “For the People Act,” remains stalled.
The House members are seeking voting legislation focused on “pre-empt[ing] harmful laws already passing in state houses across the country” and suggest eliminating proposals from the recent failed legislative effort not directly connected to ballot access, such as the campaign finance items contained in the “For the People Act.”
On Friday, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the House majority whip, told reporters House Democrats will release text of a bill next week, even though the chamber is scheduled to be on break.
In the Senate, a group led by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., could unveil legislation by early next week.
It is unclear whether any slimmed-down proposal would garner enough Republican support to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance. Republicans have not expressed interest in passing federal voting rights legislation as GOP-controlled statehouses across the country advance their own new election laws — efforts that have come as former President Donald Trump continues to spread falsehoods about his election loss last fall.
