There's no guarantee of success, but Senate Ds do have a plan of what comes after GOP blocks #s1 debate, @SenJeffMerkley tells me. They'll quickly negotiate a new voting rights bill, centered on Manchin's plan, that all 50 Ds back, then see if any, much less 10, Rs will sign on
The eventual Dem bill, Merkley says, will include the "four core principles" of S1: "the right to vote, end gerrymandering, stop billionaires from buying elections, and stop the corruption that extends from conflicts of interest. The bill we come out w/will address all of those."
"We will provide the oppty for Sen. Manchin & Sen. Sinema, w/all of us engaged, to get R support for it." Their instinct “that it is far better to have a bipartisan bill is absolutely right so we need to do everything we can to see if we can get a bipartisan group," Merkley says
But Merkley says, “if it fails, then the 50 senators who are wiling to defend our Constitution have to get into the room & figure out how" to reform the filibuster in some way to pass the bills. One option he cites: "returning to a you must show up version" of the filibuster.
No one knows if Manchin/Sinema & others ultimately will accept any filibuster changes. But this is the only path voting rights advocates & other Ds think has any chance: repeatedly demonstrating GOP intransigence combined w/continuing grassroots pressure on the D holdouts.
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