PHILADELPHIA -- President Joe Biden declared preserving voting rights an urgent national "test of our time" Tuesday but offered few concrete proposals to meet it.
Texas Democrats took their own action to stymie Republican efforts to tighten ballot restrictions in their state.
Biden, who has proclaimed protecting ballot access the central cause of his presidency, has faced sharp criticism from allies for not doing more, though political headwinds and stubborn Senate math have limited his ability to act. Despite his ringing words Tuesday, he avoided any mention of trying to alter the Senate filibuster rule that stands in the path of federal legislation.
Speaking at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Biden called state efforts to curtail voting accessibility "un-American" and "un-democratic" and launched a broadside against his predecessor, Donald Trump, who baselessly alleged misconduct in the 2020 election after his defeat. Biden called passage of congressional proposals to override new state voting restrictions and to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act that were curbed in recent years by the Supreme Court "a national imperative."
"Hear me clearly," he said to a crowd of 300 civil-rights advocates, top advisers and local officials. "There's an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote and fair and free elections. An assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are."
Yet instead of raising the possibility of fighting the filibuster to overcome opposition to proposed federal voting bills that would rollback voting restrictions that some states have put into place, he appeared to tacitly acknowledge the fading hopes for the bills, saying he would launch a nationwide campaign to arm voters with information on rule changes and restrictions ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
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Biden's sharp rhetoric drew praise from progressive groups in his party but did little to assuage the mounting pressure on him to throw his weight behind replacing the filibuster.
"The president believes that we have to make the filibuster work the way it used to," said White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who added that Biden has not changed his opposition to eliminating it altogether.
Biden's remarks came a day after Texas Democrats decamped for Washington to deny their GOP-controlled Legislature the necessary quorum to pass a bill placing new restrictions on voting in that state.
The lawmakers, who arrived in the nation's capital Monday night, said they were prepared to stay in Washington -- out of the reach of Texas law enforcement authorities -- until a special legislative session concludes early next month. Their action marks a dramatic new showdown over voting in America.
Standing near the steps of the U.S. Capitol for a news conference ahead of a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, the Democrats promised to "stay out and kill this bill."
The election proposals in Texas include restrictions championed by Trump and his allies. The bills, reported out of committee Sunday, would ban 24-hour voting and end drive-thru voting, both of which were used in the state in the 2020 election to help people vote during the coronavirus pandemic. Voting-rights advocates noted that minority-group voters disproportionately used those programs.
State Rep. Chris Turner, the leader of the Texas Legislature's House Democrats, said their efforts would ultimately be futile unless congressional Democrats take bolder action to overcome a Senate Republican blockade of the federal voting bill, known as the For the People Act, which would create national standards for voting that could roll back some of the restrictions that have been approved or are advancing in Republican-led states.
Some GOP-led states have worked to roll back the vote-by-mail expansion that was put in place in the past presidential election because of covid-19 fears. Others have tried to strengthen voter identification requirements, and curtail hours and locations for early voting and ballot drop-offs.
"We can't hold this tide back forever. We're buying some time. We need Congress and all of our federal leaders to use that time wisely," Turner said.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he would keep calling special sessions through next year if necessary to pass his state's legislation and raised the possibility of Democrats facing arrest upon returning home.
Asked whether Biden thinks the Texas legislators are doing the right thing by leaving the state, Jean-Pierre said "he applauds their courage." She said in the administration's view, the Texas bill is an "assault on democracy."
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is leading the administration's efforts on voting rights, praised the Texas legislators during a meeting with them in Washington.
"Defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie," she told the lawmakers, comparing their actions to women's suffrage and civil rights marches.
UNITED FRONT
Democrats on Capitol Hill have tried to respond to states that are enacting new voting restrictions with a federal voting and elections bill that Senate Republicans have united to block. Most Republicans have similarly dismissed a separate bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore sections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court has weakened.
Those roadblocks have increased focus on Senate filibuster rules, which, if left in place, would seem to provide an insurmountable roadblock, requiring 60 votes in the evenly split, 100-member chamber to even bring up controversial legislation.
Moderate Democrats including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona also have so far expressed reluctance to changing the Senate rules.
Many Democrats have expressed frustration with the lack of a greater White House push to change the filibuster, as civil rights activists stress that Biden was elected with broad support from Black people whose votes are often put at risk by voting restrictions.
Biden, a veteran of the Senate, has offered some support for filibuster changes. But he has not put his full political weight behind the issue, believing it counterproductive in both the legislative and political fights over voting.
"Determination about making changes will be made by members of the Senate, not by this president or any president, frankly, moving forward," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. And regarding a special exemption for voting rights, she said, "We don't have any new position on that, either."
While the president has no direct power over Senate rules -- which get revised by a vote in the chamber -- he has attracted criticism from members of his own party who believe Biden has not used the full powers of the presidency to force change in the gridlocked Capitol and are warning that failure to pass the pair of two key voting bills in Congress will be a stain on his legacy.
One of the more vocal critics -- Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y. -- said he believes Biden should be doing more now to ensure the issue of voting rights is addressed this year before redistricting gets fully underway and ultimately, along with the loss of minority voters, prevents Democrats from possibly holding the majority over the next decade.
"It's like everyone understands that the path for Republicans being in control of the federal government again is voter suppression except for the one person who has the influence to do something about it right now in this moment," Jones said in an interview.
Meanwhile, Republicans have accused Biden of misrepresenting their efforts to impose stricter voting laws.
"Joe Biden and Democrats have an election power grab playbook: lies and theatrics," Danielle Alvarez, the Republican National Committee communications director, said in a statement. "After Democrats failed to pass their federal takeover of our elections, Biden is continuing their dishonest attacks on common-sense election integrity efforts."
So dynamics have changed little in the Senate, where Democrats have been mostly unified behind elections and voting legislation but divided on whether to dismantle the filibuster to actually pass the measures.
In the absence of legislation, senators are holding hearings and continuing to highlight the issue, while pushing the Biden administration, particularly the Justice Department, to do more to challenge voting restrictions they feel are unconstitutional.
Biden and Harris met last week with some of the civil rights leaders, who made clear that they expected a legislative solution. The Rev. Al Sharpton described the meeting afterward as "a very candid, no-holds-barred meeting."
"Our backs are against the wall. This is the moment. We have no more time," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, after the meeting. "I told the president: We will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to Black citizenship."
Sharpton, who attended Biden's address, called it a "good speech," but also said, "I told him that I was going to stay on him about the filibuster." He described Biden as noncommittal on the issue.
Although not abandoning hope of legislative action, the West Wing has been shifting focus to other measures to protect voting, including legal remedies pursued by the Justice Department and action in individual states, according to officials. There also will be an emphasis on boosting voter turnout, with aides pointing to the success Democrats had in getting out votes last year during the height of the pandemic.
"Administrative action, litigation, and organizing are critical to combat this, but these tactics are not a substitute for congressional action on the For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act," Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the group Common Cause, said Tuesday. "As the president ramps up his use of the bully pulpit and engages with senators, we urge him to make clear that the Senate minority's use of the filibuster -- a Jim Crow relic, in the words of former President [Barack] Obama -- must never stand in the way of the freedom to vote."
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Brian Slodysko, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press; and by Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim, Marianna Sotomayor, Eugene Scott and Eva Ruth Moravec of The Washington Post.
