Fix for Electoral College Law to Ride on Year-End Spending Bill, Schumer Says
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said legislation that would raise the bar for challenging presidential election results will be attached to a yearlong government spending bill that lawmakers are working to clear by the end of the year.
“It will be great to get that done,” Schumer said, pointing to bipartisan backing for the legislation that was spurred by Donald Trump’s false claim that he lost the 2020 presidential election because of widespread fraud and the ensuing attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The insurgency came as Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote won by Joe Biden.
The legislation, originally sponsored by Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, would require one-fifth of lawmakers in both chambers to raise an objection to a state’s electors and force a vote, compared with just one member of each chamber under current law. It also would create a fast-track process to rein in governors who refuse to certify an election and strike vague language from the 1887 Electoral Count Act that Trump and his allies sought to exploit in order to delay or stop certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
The House cleared its own version of the bill with mostly Democratic support, but the Senate’s more modest bill won the backing of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and it’s the one leaders seek to move before Congress finishes work for the year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fix-for-electoral-college-law-to-ride-on-year-end-spending-bill-schumer-says/ar-AA15ebap
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