Is This the Worst Ever Piece of Legislation?

Today, the Senate is going to vote on an immensely dangerous piece of proposed legislation that would jeopardize the integrity of our elections. We’ve told you what the “For the People Act” (H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate) entails and the consequences that would come with it. Even with Senator Joe Manchin’s minor adjustments, the core issues of this bill are practically identical to the original S. 1, only slapping a new bill number on it – S. 2093.

Under the current rules of the Senate, we don’t believe they will reach the 60-vote threshold to take up this bill. However, if they gain Sen. Manchin’s vote, they could open the debate for getting rid of the filibuster.

On June 6th, Sen. Manchin wrote an op-ed for why he was voting against S. 1. However, only 10 days later he released a list of provisions that would gain his support for the bill. Those provisions don’t scratch the surface of this bill and ultimately reflect a replica of S. 1 with the same intent of federalizing our elections.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett outlined in his new article and summarized the impact of Sen. Manchin’s choice to now support this bill:

"You mention the op-ed that Senator Manchin wrote on June 6th that took him exactly 10 days to walk away from his position on the underlying bill, the “For the People Act.” In that op-ed, it is literally in the same paragraph, where he expresses opposition to the For the People Act and opposition for the filibuster. So, it took him 10 days to walk away from what he wrote in the op-ed on the bill. How many days will it take him to walk away from the filibuster? As you suggest, he has really already begun that walk away. The question is how fast will he continue it and how far will that walk away go? Will he support eliminating the filibuster altogether? Or will it just be a significant watering down? Either way it will be very telling. When he casts a vote today, he can say whatever he wants but if he votes to proceed to this bill, he is voting to proceed to the substance of S. 1 – the bill that just 15 or 16 days ago he told his voters he’s against. That is what is on the floor of the United States Senate today."

Sen. Manchin is likely to vote in support of this bill if a “compromise” is made within leaders of his party. Essentially, he is open to considering the exact same bill he publicly spoke out against, just with a different bill number.

To make matters even worse, S. 2093 would also repeal the Lois Lerner Rule that prevents the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from targeting conservatives because of their political and or religious views. As we told you, we have already fought this fight and won. Now, this legislation would undo all of our work and once again allow for this practice to begin again.

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Wes Smith summed up the danger of this bill:

"Nothing is as consequential as what they are proposing in this ineptly named For the People Act. Nothing that major should be done on a party line vote. The filibuster is designed to address that very kind of thing and yet they are willing to do that. And to the Constitution itself, in my opinion, I have never seen a more dangerous and horrible piece of proposed legislation than this bill that is coming before the Senate. In my opinion, it is a constitutional crisis in the making . . . and what it amounts to is – a desperate attempt by the Democrats to remain in power. It’s a hostile takeover of our free and fair elections in this country. And again, nothing this consequential should ever be done on a strict party line vote. That’s what they are proposing and if they get their way, that’s what will happen."

This is just the beginning of this debate. We hope the U.S. Senate will reject this bill in its entirety and ensure the integrity of our elections remain intact.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of the consequences and updates for S. 2093.