{"id":43182,"date":"2021-12-16T11:16:24","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T18:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-john-hickenlooper-says-time-to-change-the-filibuster-to-protect-voting-rights\/"},"modified":"2021-12-16T18:16:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T18:16:24","slug":"sen-john-hickenlooper-says-time-to-change-the-filibuster-to-protect-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-john-hickenlooper-says-time-to-change-the-filibuster-to-protect-voting-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. John Hickenlooper says \u2018time to change the filibuster\u2019 to protect voting rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., speaks Oct. 20 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado on Wednesday announced his support for \u201cchanges\u201d to the filibuster, as Senate Democrats move to take up voting rights legislation in the final weeks of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been here almost a year, and we\u2019ve seen enough: It\u2019s time to change the filibuster to protect voting rights,\u201d Hickenlooper said in a statement released by his office. \u201cProtecting the right to vote shouldn\u2019t be a partisan issue, and we set out to work across the aisle. But three separate voting rights bills have failed in the Senate this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper\u2019s announcement came as Senate Democrats signaled they would postpone consideration of President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cBuild Back Better\u201d budget bill until next year, and instead move forward with legislation to protect voting rights.<\/p>\n

Democrats have raised the alarm over moves by Republican state governments across the country to disenfranchise voters and seize control of electoral processes, an effort spurred by a wave of baseless conspiracy theories holding that widespread fraud denied former President Donald Trump victory in the 2020 election. But Democratic-sponsored legislation to safeguard voting rights has been repeatedly blocked by Republican use of the filibuster, a maneuver that requires a 60-vote supermajority to overcome.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper\u2019s statement did not specify what kind of filibuster changes he supports. Many Democrats have called for it to be eliminated, while others have floated a return to a traditional \u201ctalking filibuster\u201d that requires senators in the minority to hold the floor for a continuous period, rather than simply being invoked automatically.<\/p>\n

But his statement did make reference to a recent deal struck by party leaders in the Senate that allowed a measure to raise the debt ceiling to pass with a bare majority.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoter disenfranchisement threatens our entire democracy,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cIf we can change the process on the debt ceiling, then surely we can do the same to protect our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat and Colorado\u2019s senior senator, had previously signaled an openness to filibuster reform but hadn\u2019t explicitly endorsed eliminating it. On Wednesday, a Bennet spokesperson confirmed to Newsline that Bennet supports elimination of the filibuster.<\/p>\n

Any changes to the rules surrounding the filibuster would need the support of all 50 Democratic senators. Within minutes of Hickenlooper\u2019s announcement on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona reiterated her opposition to such changes, according to Politico.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats raise alarm over moves to disenfranchise voters in some states<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[481,28,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43182"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}