U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema speaks during a United States Senate Committee on Finance hearing on Oct. 19, 2021. /Photo by Rod Lamkey | Pool/Getty Images
By Jacob Fischler | Arizona Mirror DECEMBER 16, 2021
Arizona’s enigmatic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to weakening the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for moving ahead on legislation, even as other Democrats are floating the idea of making an exception to the chamber’s rules to pass major voting rights measures.
In a statement to States Newsroom, a Sinema spokeswoman said the senator supports the voting rights bills but fears that changing Senate rules would ultimately undermine the bills’ goals and Americans’ faith in the legislative process.
Sinema’s fellow Senate Democrat have renewed calls this week to bypass the 60-vote threshold for voting rights legislation as the end of the year and a holiday recess loom.
“Senator Sinema strongly supports and has voted for [voting rights legislation] — and will continue to support such efforts, because she believes that the right to vote and faith in our electoral process are critical to the health of our democracy,” her spokeswoman, Hannah Hurley, wrote in a Thursday email.
“As she has throughout her time in the U.S. House and Senate, Senator Sinema also continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government,” Hurley continued.
Senate rules require 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to override a filibuster, a tool the chamber’s minority party can use to block legislation by refusing to yield the floor and thus indefinitely delay a vote.
