Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that he will not bring a House election reform bill up for a vote in the Senate.
“This sprawling 622-page doorstop is never going to become law. I certainly don’t plan to even bring it to the floor here in the Senate,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
McConnell added that “there’s always improvements and reforms to be made, but this certainly isn’t.”
{mosads}House Democrats are poised to pass the sweeping anti-corruption bill, known as H.R. 1, this week, kicking the legislation to the GOP-controlled Senate. Democrats unveiled the legislation on their first day back in control of the House, underscoring its importance to their agenda. Proponents of the bill argue it’s necessary to crack down on corruption in upcoming elections.
The measure aims to expand voting rights through provisions including creating automatic voter registration, increasing election security by pushing back on foreign threats and making Election Day a national holiday for federal workers.
But it’s viewed as dead on arrival in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to break a filibuster. McConnell has made the bill a frequent punching bag in his daily speeches from the Senate floor, referring to it as the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.”
“One of our two major political parties has begun embracing one radical, half-baked socialist proposal after another. It’s really a sight to see,” McConnell said on Monday.
He added that the bill is a “sweeping Washington, D.C., takeover of what Americans can say about politics and how they elect their representatives.”