Vice President Kamala Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio that the Senate should eliminate the filibuster to codify Roe.
Transcript:
Kate Archer Kent: “You’ve said you want to work with Congress to pass a federal bill to codify abortion rights. How do you plan to get enough support in Congress to restore abortion rights when you’d likely need to pass the Senate filibuster, you’d have potential legal hurdles?”
Vice President Harris: “Well, let me first say to all your listeners, you must reelect your senator, Tammy Baldwin, because we need the votes in Congress to do exactly what you are saying. And that’s true, and it is well within our reach to hold onto the majority in the Senate and take back the House. And so I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House. That being said, I’ve been very clear. I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe … to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom, and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”
Listen:
What VP Harris laid out is why it is vital that Democrats keep the Senate majority. With the Senate majority, and Manchin/Sinema no longer serving in the body, Democrats will have the votes to change the filibuster rules and do things like codifying Roe along with restoring the Voting Rights Act, taking away unlimited presidential immunity, and countering other decisions by the conservative Supreme Court majority.
Unlike Joe Biden, Kamala Harris has experience in the modern US Senate that is much more partisan and has taken on some of the behavioral characteristics of the House.
President Biden was very effective in many areas especially related to the economy, but he struggled with how the Senate has changed on social issues and become much more partisan.
Harris understands the modern Senate and if elected will come into the Oval Office understanding that if Democrats have the majority, the filibuster will need to be changed in order to get things done.
Codifying Roe isn’t a campaign slogan or a pipe dream.
There is a plan, but Democrats need a Senate majority to make it a reality.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association